Introduction: Sudden cardiac arrest is a condition in which the heart muscle stops completely or its ejection power is insufficient to ensure adequate blood supply to the organs. Shortening the time between cardiac arrest and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation is key to improving the victim’s chances of survival. Slovenia is one of the most geographically diverse countries, certain areas are quite sparsely populated, so they are consequently further away from major cities and emergency medical services. The often-available time of the emergency medical team is more than 10 minutes, which significantly worsens the chances of survival of a suddenly ill person. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma thesis was to study the professional literature in the field of first responders in the emergency medical care system and with the help of data analysis to review the introduction of first responders in the Gorenjska region in the period 2014-2017. Methods of work: In the diploma work, a descriptive method of work was used, which included a critical review of domestic and foreign literature. The research sample includes data collected by individual emergency medical services within the Gorenjska region, where first responders were included in the emergency medical care system. Data are presented in the form of graphs and tables. Results: In 2014, 64 members from the area of emergency medical care in Kranj joined the project and were active in 6 interventions. In 2017, 547 first responders from across the region were active, recording a total of 75 interventions. The shortest access time of first responders was recorded in 2015 and was 5,57 minutes. Resuscitation using a defibrillator was performed in 33 cases in 2017 - mostly in the Radovljica area Discussion and conclusion: In the observed years, both the number of interventions involving first responders and the number of first responders included in the system of first responders within the Gorenjska region is increasing. Given the number of interventions of first responders since their introduction, their placement in the emergency medical care system is necessary and expedient. The interest of both voluntary fire brigades and members of other semi-professional rescue services to join the project is increasing. We found that the first intermediaries in the Gorenjska region are distributed evenly in number according to the area covered by each emergency medical unit. Most activations were due to disease problems (81,34%). The sample showed the need to unify the indications for the activation of first responders and to uniformly record the type of event to which they were sent.
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