He holds the honour of being the first rapid response paramedic in the Province to administer the clot-buster 'thrombolysis', and is spearheading a pilot programme in the City aimed at dramatically reducing death from clots, as well as performing all the other duties of a rapid response paramedic. If the scheme continues to produce notable results it will be rolled out in other areas.
Under 'normal' circumstances a paramedic is a highly trained member of an ambulance crew who has gone forward for further specialist training, but as Ciaran explains in his own humble way, he is the first paramedic in Northern Ireland to administer thrombolysis - the drug having formerly been administered only by doctors.
"The rapid response paramedics are out in cars rather than being part of a two-man crew on an A&E vehicle. They are lone workers," he says by way of defining his role within the Ambulance staff hierarchy.
"When we volunteered for and came onto the project, the idea was that we would be out in cars roaming the City trying to hit certain targets including Category A calls and life-threatening emergencies, and in particular the cardiac calls. We did thrombolysis training specifically to 'hit' patients that were having heart attacks. The thrombolysis training allows us to use a 12-lead ECG to diagnose heart attacks to find out specifically where they are in the heart and the thrombolytic drug us the opportunity to administer to the patient. It travels to the clot in the coronary artery and dissolves the clot," he said.
"We have only been trialing this system for a short time. Previously, for years the coronary care teams in hospitals were administering this drug and it was tying them up. The Ambulance Service said 'give us the drug and we will administer it' because it will help the patient.
"You see you need to administer the drug within 60 minutes of the heart attack and targeting the clot in order to make an effective diagnosis and treatment. So it is quite a short window of opportunity. We are now doing it. The outcome so far, touch wood, has been 100 per cent," he said.
Way forward
Ciaran admits that he joined the rapid response team because it appeared it was the way forward, and did his thrombolysis training in August 2008 and was the first person in the Ambulance Service to successfully administer thrombolysis.
"I do get a bit of value out of that, I do slabber a wee bit about it," he says, adding: "But it is quite a big deal. It is a big step forward not only for the Rapid Response boys but also for the Ambulance Service in general. A huge leap forward in technology and a huge leap forward from the coronary care teams in terms of trusting us with trialing it. It is a big deal."
According to Ciaran, the thrombolysis trial is really making a difference to people's lives.
"If you can get to the patient and administer it, it really does make a big, big difference to people's lives," he said.
Other Category A calls that Ciaran and his colleagues target include stroke patients and road traffic accidents.
"The whole idea of the service is that we are roving, and we should be in the vicinity. Because we are mobile in the area it means we are pro-active. We are not stationed in the station. We are out and about in the City and in the estates, and we are driving about, so you might see us sitting on the bridge, in Shantallow, on the Northland Road - wherever.
"The Government targets state that we must be on site in eight minutes to hit a category A call - from the call comes in, to us being at the patient's door. It can be difficult for the A&E teams sometimes, but for us the chances are we are only six minutes from a call, maybe only three minutes from a call, or maybe even just around the corner, rather than 10 or 12 minutes away because we are sitting in a station.
"We are driving around, and are pro-active because we are actively looking for the calls. that's the idea of the rapid response vehicles. That said, I am not doing this to hit targets, I'm doing it for the patients and I want to help them, but the eight-minute response time is very, very important. You have to have someone at the patient's side in a Category A situation within a very short time if you want to make a difference," he says.
"It has been proven that these patients are now up and about making a 100 per cent recovery because of this training and because the response veyhicle has been out and about around the town and close to them when the call came in. So without a doubt it does make a difference," he says.