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Posts Tagged Lucas Chest Compression System

Evanston Fire Department news

Apr 21

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Excerpts from patch.com:

Evanston Fire Department ambulances will be equipped with LUCAS – Chest Compression Systems thanks to a $56,000 donation from the Evanston First Responders Foundation. The local nonprofit designated funding for three LUCAS devices, one for each of the department’s ambulances, in honor of Oliver Brown Leopold, a graduate of the EFD’s fire explorer program.

LUCAS, which stands for Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System, is a portable chest compression system that allows firefighters to keep up chest compressions without interruptions, significantly increasing the patient’s chance of survival.

Brown Leopold was the youngest member of the foundation’s board of directors when he died December 2021 at the age of 19 from what his family described as an apparent suicide.

Speaking at a memorial service, Evanston Fire Department Captain Megan Kamarchevakul remembered Brown Leopold as a natural leader who radiated positive energy from the time he started with the fire explorers when he was 13. He recalled the time Brown Leopold purchased the department’s reserve ladder truck.

“He had everything lined up, he had insurance, storage, upkeep, the only problem was he couldn’t drive it,” Kamarchevakul said. After the teen got his permit, the captain helped him learn to drive it.

Brown Leopold graduated early from Evanston Township High School in order to become an emergency medical technician during the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic, working in an emergency room and on an ambulance — later taking a gap year so that he could become a paramedic.

Since its founding in 2013, the Evanston First Responders Foundation has distributed grants to allow the department to buy gear for the fire explorers program, acquire a police dog, funding community CPR programs and mannequins, and bought bike helmets to distribute during the Bike the Ridge event in which cyclists are allowed to legally ride on Ridge Avenue for a few hours every year.

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Mount Prospect Fire Department news

Mar 1

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Excerpt from the Journal-Topics.com:

The Mount Prospect Fire Department will be purchasing four automatic chest compression devices and seven thermal imaging cameras in 2019. Trustees approved the equipment upgrade requests 6-0 at the Tuesday, Feb. 19 regular village board meeting.

The fire department settled on the Lucas chest compression system due to their compatibility with Northwest Community Emergency Medical Services. While the total cost of the devices is $51,880, the village will only pay $4,756, due to the Assistance to Firefighters Grant that was awarded to the fire department in 2018. Taking the lowest of three bids the fire department will purchase the Bullard QXT Thermal Imaging Cameras from Dinges Fire Co. at a cost of $53,795.

The cost of the cameras came in just under the Capital Improvement Plan budget of $54,000.

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Batavia Fire Department news

Dec 14

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From the cityofbatavia.net:

With $15,000 in funding provided by the local Firefighters Union 3436 and the Benevolent Association, the Batavia Fire Department purchased a Lucas Automatic CPR machine to assist in lifesaving measures for people experiencing cardiac arrest. The unit is designed to fit any patient and is transportable. “This machine helps apply consistent CPR without fatigue,” said Batavia Firefighter Chris LaFleur. “And it is continuous, which is proven to be a more effective way to conduct CPR.”

In 2010, the American Heart Association released guidelines calling for continuous, high-quality chest compressions to general blood flow and oxygen delivery to the myocardium and brain without delay. It also found that 75 percent of all cardiac arrest result from non-shockable rhythms, making the more intense, higher quality CPR even more important than before.

With more than 325,000 people annually experiencing non-traumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac events in the United States, cardiac arrest remains the leading cause of death in people over the age of 45 years old. In combination with trained use of Automatic External Defibrillator devices, the Batavia Fire Department seeks to reduce the risk of death from cardiac arrest.

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Barrington Fire Department news

Sep 9

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Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus will provide $10,000 for the village of Barrington’s purchase of two Lucas CPR mechanical assist devices. The battery-powered units enhance paramedics’ efforts for cardiac arrest patients through automated chest compressions, allowing paramedics to concentrate on more advanced resuscitative skills, such as IV access, medication delivery, defibrillation and advanced airway management.

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Elgin Fire Department news

Aug 11

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Excerpts from the Chicagotribune.com:

The Elgin Fire Department intends to use a $72,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to purchase state-of-the-art equipment to be used when performing CPR.

The city council Wednesday night is set to move along for final approval the purchase from Michigan-based Stryker for $79,400, with $7,200 of the money coming from the fire department’s capital budget. Stryker is the owner of Washington-based Physio-Control, which makes the system.

We will be getting five of the systems, one for every frontline ambulance,” Fire Chief Dave Schmidt said Tuesday.

“It’s great tool to have in the community,” said Dr. Mohammad Zaman, Medical Director, CEP America, Presence St. Joseph Hospital Elgin.

The systems are designed to provide consistent, high-quality mechanical chest compressions that meet the American Heart Association standards for rate, depth and speed. Part of the apparatus goes under a person’s back, while the other part wraps over a person’s chest and holds a device which applies the compressions, which can be adjusted to the size of the person.

The Lucas Chest Compression System the department plans to buy allows firefighters to keep CPR going while a patient is on a stretcher and while the patient is being moved, even up or down stairs.

The machines also take away lapses in applying CPR thus lessening health-related issues for patients and keep the compressions consistent, taking away the fatigue factor when a paramedic is applying the compressions. Current protocol calls for CPR to be applied for 30 minutes before terminating resuscitation efforts.

Schmidt said the systems also mean more safety for paramedics while in ambulances, who now can wear a seat belt while chest compressions are being applied by the battery-operated machine.

The systems are Bluetooth enabled so that they can transmit the data they collect to the department’s computer system and to the hospital to which a patient is being taken.

 

Statistics show that each year in the United States, more than 300,000 individuals suffer non-traumatic, out-of-hospital, sudden cardiac arrest, which has been the leading cause of death in adults over 40. The Elgin Fire Department responds to about 56 cardiac arrest incidents annually.

During a four-month trial of the two mechanical CPR systems, the Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) percentage rate in cardiac arrest victims rose from 36 percent to almost 58 percent, Schmidt said. Upon completion of the trial, the rate returned to 36, or about 10 percent higher than the national ROSC average.

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Carpentersville Fire Department news

Jan 11

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Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

For the second time in less than six months, Carpentersville firefighter-paramedics have been able to save a life with the aid of an automatic CPR device.

Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling told village trustees at a recent meeting that firefighters responded to a person whose cardiac monitor rhythm had flatlined. With the use of the Lucas Chest Compression System, which provides uninterrupted chest compressions in cases of sudden cardiac arrest, the patient was revived.

 The device frees up first-responders firefighters to do other critical life-saving tasks, such as ventilation, drug therapy and defibrillation.

“If you have to move a patient, it still does CPR. In the past, before having this, when you moved the patient, there was a pause in CPR because it’s difficult for somebody to compress a chest when you can’t put an arm behind them,” Schilling said. “But this machine wraps around the torso and continually does compressions.”

The device, which cost about $14,000, was paid for by the village.

Emergency responders Firefighters were field-testing the device in July when they were able to use it to revive a woman in cardiac arrest.

“We try to save lives every day, but sometimes the patient is not physically revivable, whether it’s due to poor condition of their heart or they don’t respond well to the drugs or compressions with the machines,” Schilling said. “But there are patients where, if we can get to them quick enough and they’re in good physiological shape, we can make a difference. This case proves it.”

thanks Dan

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