WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) – For someone having a heart attack, seconds, let alone minutes, can mean the difference between life and death.

Thursday morning, staff at Trumbull Regional Medical Center, along with paramedics from the Vienna Fire Department, staged a drill to test their responses to a possible heart attack patient in the field.

The national standards are to get the victim to the hospital and into treatment in less than an hour and a half.

Thursday’s drill took just 19 minutes.

“Any time you can shut off time for a patient, it actually helps to save the cardiac muscle, so the ‘Twiage’ app is very important to us ’cause that 19 minutes help save the cardiac tissue in that patient,” said Missie Herman, director of cardiothoracic and vascular services.

The Twiage app allows paramedics to use a cell phone and send information directly to physicians who can then oversee the patient’s treatment even before they arrive in the Emergency Department — saving time and lives.