THE South East Coast Ambulance Service has reached a landmark with the 500th person to be treated with a clot-busting drug.

Herne Bay paramedic Graham Smith, thrombolysed a 70-year-old man from Whitstable in March.

Thrombolytic drugs dissolve blockages in blood vessels and thin the blood to limit damage to the heart muscle.

Graham, who has carried out this procedure seven times, was surprised to discover that he had carried out the 500th life-saving treatment.

He said “It came as quite a surprise as I was also told that the first paramedic in Kent to thrombolyse a patient was based at Herne Bay and then two weeks later I became the second paramedic to thrombolyse.”

Graham responded to the emergency with his crew mate Nick Holden.

The patient, who has a history of angina, had been suffering from chest pain earlier in the evening.

In an attempt to relieve the pain, he used a GTN spray, a nitrate drug used for angina pain, but by late evening the pain had grown worse and his wife called for an ambulance.

Graham addedd: “He wasn’t showing the classic signs of a heart attack such as sweating, paleness of colour or the pain down the left arm and it was only when we had him on board the ambulance and we attached him to the 12-lead heart monitor that it became clear the he was suffering from a heart attack.

“The remarkable thing about giving such a drug is seeing the impact it has on the patient. By the time we arrived at the hospital, he was feeling a lot better and as we were leaving, he was sitting up in the hospital bed talking with his family”.

Heart disease is the UK’s biggest killer and accounted for more than 210,000 deaths in 2004. More than one in three people (37 per cent) will die from heart disease.

For every minute a patient is not treated for a heart attack, their life expectancy falls by 10 per cent.

Graham said: “Reaching 500 is quite an achievement. However, the public should realise that the sooner the heart attack patients receive the right treatment the better the outcome.

"It will not only limit the damage to the heart but also increase the overall life expectancy of a patient”.

The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, has made a full recovery and returned home after only a short spell in hospital.