The American Heart Association is pleased to announce the appointment of long-time volunteer and Fayette County Chief of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Dr. Allen McCullough, to chair the Georgia Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) committee and serve on the National ECC Committee as part of the Education Subcommittee and the Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) Subcommittee. McCullough will take an active role in implementing the new resuscitation guidelines that were recently released and further develop education methods to train a wide-range of individuals from lay rescuers to professional healthcare providers. He will also help with the research and development of resuscitation and training guidelines which are utilized internationally for adult and pediatric emergency care.
McCullough has been an active volunteer with the American Heart Association for nearly 30 years and has served in many roles during that time. In these roles and as the Chief of EMS for Fayette County for 23 years, McCullough has seen the county’s many successes in improving cardiovascular training and survival, including: implementing the first AED program for Fire Services in the State of Georgia; the first 12-Lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) program for the field diagnosis of heart attack; the first Fire-based EMS in the State of Georgia to begin reversing heart attack in the field with clot-busting drugs known as fibrinolytics; the first EMS system in the state to train rescuers to the level of critical care paramedics with certification. As a result of these and other Fayette County EMS accomplishments in the development of a best-practice community model of comprehensive cardiovascular care, the county was presented with one of the first American Heart Association Heart Safe Community Awards in 2000.
McCullough states that the successes in Fayette County are attributed to the strong support from the county administration and the Board of Commissioners, who have always supported EMS systems and efforts to make Fayette County EMS a best-practice model that has received national recognition.