Cruz Roja Chapala (CRC) has stepped up the level of professional emergency medical care available at Lakeside through specialized training in Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) for members of its health care team.
Recent graduates of a university level ACLS course include staff doctors David Ponce Herrera, Jaime Ortega Rodriguez, Roberto Aceves, Lucero Ivette Godoy Bañuelos and Manuel Rivera Cuevas, along with titled paramedics Mario Alberto Gonzalez Rios, Manuel Siordia Moya, Angel Siordia Moya, Jorge Chavez Rumeño, Charles G. Twyman and Claudia Anaya Torres. Cruz Roja medical director Sam Thelin and physician Aaron Paul Gonzalez were previously certified in ACLS procedures to treat victims of cardiac arrest and other cardiopulmonary emergencies.
The CRC’s paramedics (TUMs) are now fully qualified to use ECG machines on board the ambulances and coordinate with on-duty doctors to start diagnosis and treatment from the moment they pick up an ailing patient.Previously, emergency care was delayed until the patient could be delivered to the local clinic’s medical area, with precious life-saving minutes lost during the time of transport.
“The ACLS class was a success in many ways in helping to improve the quality of emergency cardiac care and raising the bar overall to where it should be based on the ever-growing aging population,” reports Norm Pifer, vice president of the CRC Consejo (board of directors). “It was achieved through the efforts of Dr. Thelin, our International Volunteers, the Consejo and the Jalisco Cruz Roja, along with much needed financial support from the community.”