WALLINGFORD, CT -- Executives of Z-Medica Corporation (Z-Medica) today presented the company’s 2007 Francis X. Hursey Award to Rockland Paramedic Services (RPS) Medic 21 member John McCullough for his heroic use of its breakthrough QuikClot(R) 1st Response(TM) brand hemostatic agent to save the life of a motorcycle accident victim with a torn femoral artery. The Hursey Award -- a presentation sculpture and a $1000 check to the recipient’s charity of choice -- is presented annually to, “the civilian first responder who best exemplifies the Z-Medica creed: The greatest privilege is to make a difference.” It is named for Frank Hursey, the discoverer of QuikClot(R) who, with Z-Medica CEO Raymond J. Huey, made the presentation to McCullough before an audience of officials of Orangetown, New York, where the accident occurred, members of the public, representatives of RPS, and the woman whose life was saved -- now recovered. Her appearance drew tears and applause from the room as her fiancee had been killed instantly.
When paramedic McCullough arrived at the May 2007 accident scene, he observed the victim with a life-threatening injury involving a tear of the femoral artery. A tourniquet applied by bystanders was not working.
Calling on his training, McCullough applied QuikClot(R) 1st Response(TM) to the wound, and immediately stopped the arterial bleeding. Stabilized, the victim was airlifted to the Westchester Medical Center Trauma Center in Valhalla, New York. According to RPS, the Westchester trauma team attributed the victim’s survival and good outcome to paramedic McCullough’s intervention with QuikClot.
“We applaud John McCullough and Rockland Paramedic Services for providing the citizens in its coverage area with the latest and most effective blood clotting technology,” said Z-Medica CEO Ray Huey. “They share our commitment to greatly reducing the more than 50,000 U.S. lives lost each year from traumatic bleeding -- mostly in traffic accidents. We were very touched to meet this wonderful woman who is alive because of QuikClot. Her courage to attend despite her loss is inspirational and her example will help to save others.”
RPS was the first EMS group in the Hudson Valley region of New York State to test and deploy QuikClot(R) 1st Response(TM). It has reported a number of effective usages since adopting QuikClot(R) in 2007. Since his actions that won the Hursey Award, McCullough again used QuikClot(R) 1st Response(TM) brand to save a second life -- a police officer who was struck by a truck while part of a motorcycle escort detail.
John McCullough is the fourth recipient of the Hursey Award. Former recipients are a corporal in the Pennsylvania State Police, Tunkhannock Station, a deputy in the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department, Tampa, Florida, and an officer in the Marlborough, New York Police Department.
QuikClot(R) is an inert proprietary mineral product manufactured in various formulations for different applications. The original formulation is granular and poured directly into a wound. Later products consist of beads of QuikClot(R) encased in a porous surgical fabric. These include QuikClot ACS+(TM) (Advanced Clotting Sponge) and QuikClot(R) 1st Response(TM), QuikClot(R) Combat Gauze(TM), a new product for the military and tactical market and two consumer products, QuikClot(R) Sport(TM) brand and QuikClot(R) Sport Silver(TM) brand (antimicrobial).
QuikClot(R) brand hemostatic product has been credited with saving more than 150 lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the most widely used hemostatic first aid product available, with more than one million units deployed with U.S. military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, with first responders and security organizations across the nation and in 36 countries around the globe.
About Z-Medica
Founded in 2002, Z-Medica Corporation is a medical products company focused on innovative blood clotting nano-technologies. QuikClot(R) brand hemostatic agent was developed in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command and university hospitals.
Z-Medica headquarters is located at 4 Fairfield Blvd., Wallingford, Connecticut 06492. For more information, please call (203) 294.0000 or visit http://www.z-medica.com.
About Rockland Paramedic Services
Rockland Paramedic Services is an advanced life support service, which responds to all 911 medical emergencies in Rockland County, New York along with the various volunteer ambulance corps in the county.
Website: http://www.z-medica.com/