Sunstar Paramedics EMT Alex Cramer and paramedic Joshua Works had an important decision to make when they treated a woman with an aortic aneurysm: to which hospital should they transport her. Patients with aortic aneurysms need immediate medical treatment to prevent a stroke or the aneurysm bursting, which causes life-threatening internal bleeding.

Cramer and Works knew that the closest hospital was experiencing high patient volumes and they were concerned that it may be too busy to get the patient the immediate care she needed. Instead, they decided to transport her to a hospital that was a few minutes farther away, but they knew it had a lower patient volume in the emergency room.

They made the right choice. The patient was taken into surgery within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital, which is the only treatment for a patient with an aortic aneurysm.

The patient and her daughter met with Cramer and Works in June. The patient is recovering in a rehabilitation facility, and her daughter feels that Works and Cramer’s exceptional clinical skills, quick assessment of the situation and accurate selection for the hospital were major factors in her mother’s survival.