Dorset paramedics have treated over 100 heart attack victims with the drug

Dorset Ambulance NHS Trust says its staff have successfully treated 100 people with the blood clot-attacking medication, Tenecteplase.

It believes the introduction of the medicine last year "dramatically" increased patients' chance of survival.

Tenecteplase is used to break up clots which have formed in the heart muscle.

Government targets

The trust says there is a two hour "window of opportunity" in which a heart muscle can be salvaged when a patient is experiencing an acute heart attack.

The new treatment being used by the Dorset paramedics has been proved to be of greatest benefit in the first hour of the onset of heart attack symptoms.

Agricultural worker Simon Tilling, 37, who was the service's youngest emergency to receive the drug, said: "I was left in no doubt by the doctors that I owe my life to the prompt treatment given by the paramedics.

"I had the attack three days before my 38th birthday, I only spent five days in hospital and I am back at work now. The doctors say I can start playing golf again."

Coronary heart disease kills more than 110,000 people a year in England, of whom more than 41,000 are under the age of 75.

Thrombolysis is the treatment to break up abnormal blood clots that are restricting blood flow.

A Dorset Ambulance Trust spokesperson said: "Dorset Ambulance are exceeding the governments' targets administering thrombolysis treatment well within the 60-minute goal.