Carolyn Penn was serving dinner at a Hosea Williams Feed the Hungry event at Turner Field in January when she began to feel pain.  Almost immediately, the 49-year-old pre-K teacher knew something wasn’t right.  She thought the pain was jus a muscle cramp in her back, but then experienced waves of pain throughout her body. 

Rapid response reduces heart attack deaths.  With every second counting, Penn was rushed to the hospital. Remarkable, she was evaluated and treated with angioplasty within just 30 minutes of the initial onset of symptoms, thanks to a 911 call.  Today, Penn is back at A.D. Williams Elementary in Atlanta shepherding her group of active preschoolers and working a second job at Turner Field.  She is on medication and has a stent, placed during her angioplasty last winter, that continues to prop open her artery.

Penn’s life was saved by a 911 emergency response and a unique new emergency service project called Dial 911 Don't Drive.  Aptly named, Dial 911 Don't Drive Atlanta is a five-hospital cooperative initiative of emergency medical services in Fulton County.  It allows emergency medical services to transmit lifesaving data to local Atlanta hospitals in order to shorten the time to treatment and increase a heart attack victim’s chance of survival.  Dial 911 Don't Drive is a joint project between Atlanta Medical Center, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Emory University Hospital, Piedmont Hospital, Saint Joseph’s Hospital, the American Heart Association and all four EMS systems in Fulton County.

“Although all hospitals work on shortening the time of the patient’s arrival to opening the artery, then Dial 911 Don't Drive initiative concentrates on shortening the time from the onset of symptoms to stopping the attack with angioplasty,” said Spencer B. King, M.D., chair of interventional cardiology at Piedmont Hospital’s Fuqua Heart Center of Atlanta.  King co-directs the program with Bryan McNally, M.D., an Emory University Hospital emergency medicine physician.

Under the Dial 911 Don't Drive initiative, every ambulance providing emergency 911 response in Fulton County is equipped with a full 12-lead electrocardiographic (EKG) unit.  Each unit can transmit an individual’s EKG immediately to one of the five hospitals equipped with receiving units.  This allows a diagnosis to be made before the patient arrives – avoiding registration and testing delays at the hospital.  Protocols are established in each of the hospitals to streamline the movement of the patient directly to the cardiac catheterization laboratory for urgent angioplasty.