Alachua County Fire Rescue Receives Grant for Life Saving Equipment
Press release from Alachua County
Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) received and placed into service three Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist Systems (LUCAS). These units are used to perform automatic mechanical compressions during CPR. ACFR purchased the equipment with a grant from the State of Florida Department of Health (for deployment in the rural areas of Alachua County). The LUCAS device can quickly be deployed on a patient in cardiac arrest and delivers continuous chest compressions for the duration of the call.
Rural areas of Alachua County can have longer transportation times. These devices can maintain consistent compressions and free a rescuer to perform additional life-saving procedures.
ACFR conducted field trials on this equipment before selecting the LUCAS devices and found that they doubled the survivability of their patients. The department will add more of these devices as funding becomes available.
Very cool technology. It is amazing how much effort it takes to provide continuous, high quality chest compressions. Rescuers become fatigued quickly, and there is so much to do to bring back a patient in those critical minutes following a cardiac arrest. This technology should really result in some saved lives, and probably needs to be placed in quite a few more of our rural fire stations…