Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Con Fire) has deployed 30 new LUCAS Chest Compression Systems designed to provide consistent, high quality and uninterrupted chest compressions to cardiac event victims at incident scenes and while being transported to hospitals.
These devices are part of a Con Fire initiative to improve survivability of cardiac events across the County and are expected to improve patient outcomes by automatically delivering hands-free chest compressions, freeing first responders to perform other critical advanced life support tasks during these incidents.
An additional anticipated benefit is the potential for reduction in injuries to first responders while administering CPR.
An additional anticipated benefit is the potential for reduction in injuries to first responders while administering CPR. I’m guessing this might mean less broken ribs? I would rather have broken ribs and be alive, then dying. Not sure if I would trust this machine? But I haven’t seen it work.
The machine works so well that people have been up and talking to first responders while it worked, even though their heart is stopped and in cardiac arrest.
The injuries to first responders that they are referencing in the article is about the person giving the CPR…Muscle tears, extreme fatigue are just some of the injuries they will get. The patient is the one who gets the broken ribs from the compressions
These devices are a game changer for life saving.
Excellent Life saving device. It never tires,stops,adjusts or pauses. When moving patients from one location to the next we MUST adjust to the situation thus stopping or providing less than a quality compression. Moving patients from the second floor bedroom, down narrow hallways , then down stairs impacts the CPR. Medics and Fireman contort to adjust body mechanics. The machine is placed on the patient at point of care and then strapped to a back board and moved to transport.
Upon arrival in the emergency department we leave it on to attempt to stabilize and get a good base line. I HAVE SEEN it in action. I does have a positive impact on the patient and the well being of our EMS teams… WELL DONE CON FIRE……..ps ribs still get broken.
This is great to hear. I’m just always leary of something new. So glad to hear from people that have seen it in use or have used it. Thank you.
This is a great idea.
My husband had an in hospital cardiac arrest last summer, and was transported from Berkeley to San Francisco on a Lucas device. He is still alive and doing surprisingly well.