There is a difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.
It's been at least 15 years since my old department began leaving dead people at home. There is also criteria to pronounce people dead in the field not due to cardiac arrest. No need to tie up an ambulance to do it.
The American Heart Association sets the standards for advanced cardiac life support. (ACLS)
The standard while I was working was 2 rounds of cardiac drugs, shocks and CPR. If no response they are pronounced at the scene. It was weird to start leaving people but it was weird knowing you were taking a dead person to a hospital. Sometimes as was has been mentioned, a doc out on the ambo ramp smoking a cigarette would call it.
This is not news to people that have done EMS. You guys are getting sucked in by the main stream media.
