RACINE COUNTY - Each year, approximately 115 to 130 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest in Racine County. But each of those individuals has a much better chance of surviving, today, thanks to steady improvements in the emergency medical system.

Reports from the Racine Area Emergency Medical Service group from the last 10 years show that the survival rate for local cardiac arrest patients went from 3 percent in 1998 to 16 percent in 2007.

Dr. Rommel Bode, the Racine Area EMS group's medical director and an emergency-room physician, said that while that still doesn't seem like a big enough number, compared to the national cardiac arrest survival rate of 6 percent, it's pretty incredible.

"In the last five years we've seen a significant increase; a fourfold increase," Bode said.

Dave Piccolo, the EMS coordinator for the Racine Area EMS group, said the American Heart Association credits four things for increasing cardiac arrest survival rates:

- Early access (when someone calls 911 immediately).

- Early CPR.

- Early defibrillation.

- Early advanced care.

Racine County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Simanek had all four of those things when he suffered sudden cardiac arrest Feb. 10.

"I was sitting in the family room in a chair," Simanek said. "According to my wife, my head went down and my arms starting shaking."

Theresa Simanek called 911. Although neither she nor their son, Peter, knows CPR, the dispatcher on the phone gave them instructions. Peter Simanek started CPR on his dad.

Theresa Simanek said rescue personnel arrived very quickly. "They took over," she said. "I was really upset. It was all such a blur. He was in the emergency room. The next thing I knew he was in (the intensive care unit)."

Simanek doesn't remember the cardiac arrest. He doesn't remember the next few days, either. His first memory after the incident was being in recovery at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare -All Saints Spring Street Campus. He was a survivor.

Just 12 days after his cardiac arrest, Simanek was discharged. His wife says he has recovered quickly. He goes to cardiac rehabilitation three days a week and tries to walk in between.

"I can drive now," said Simanek. "I intend to go back to work right after Easter."

Bode said Simanek is an example of how the American Heart Association's Chain of Survival works.

His wife called 911. His son did bystander CPR. Racine Rescue responded. "He was treated with a defibrillator and IV medication," Bode said. "Prior to coming to the hospital, he had a pulse."

The cardiac arrest survival rate increase here is no accident. It is a direct improvement based on local fire departments working together as part of the Racine Area EMS group.

The group was first organized in 1996 with Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce as a way to look at emergency services and avoid duplication, said RAMAC President Roger Caron. They've worked on issues such as joint fire stations, joint dispatch and response agreements.

To oversee the group, a doctor was hired by RAMAC and funded through the participating municipalities: Racine, Sturtevant, Mount Pleasant, Caledonia, Union Grove-Yorkville, and

Raymond.

Caron said the original physician, Dr. James Soyka, developed policies and protocols for all the emergency medical technicians. Then they took a look at paramedic training. "Racine County was the last county in the state with a population greater than 60,000 without paramedic service," Piccolo said.

Many of the departments had faced roadblocks while trying to make the upgrade to paramedics individually. When the EMS group was formed, they were able to sit around a table and come up with ideas.

Advanced Life Saving training was set up through the group to upgrade EMT crews throughout the county to paramedic crews.

EMTs are able to offer what is called basic life support, Bode said. Paramedics offer advanced life support, which allows them to use more equipment and certain medications to further help a patient in need.

"It's had a definite positive impact on Racine," Caron said.

In addition to cardiac arrest survival rates, the group also looked at the statistics regarding how often emergency medicine crews were able to get a pulse back from a person who had gone into cardiac arrest.

They found a big increase in those numbers from the past 10 years as well: from 9 percent in 1998 to 37 percent in 2007.

"To see that means that advanced life support is really making a difference," Piccolo said. "This means the interventions they are able to provide are

working."