The newest addition to the Becker Fire Dept. will bring life-saving benefits to the crew without taking up any room on the seats of the trucks and doesn’t require an office or a locker.

 

The BFD recently received a LUCAS 2 chest compression device, a machine that senses the size of a patient and delivers standard CPR compression at the press of a button. The piston-driven machines can help resuscitate patients who have suffered cardiac arrest and are showing no pulse or are unconscious.

 

Liberty Paper, Inc. (LPI) contributed $16,000 to pay the entire cost of the all-important apparatus.

 

The device acts as a “halo” around the back, shoulder and chest area of the patient and once the patient is situated inside the device, the machine works on its own and gives automated and continuous CPR, Becker Fire Dept. Chief Doug Kolbinger said.

 

“That’s a big deal for our crew and emergency medical technicians because it allows the responder to be free to help with putting in an IV or check the patient’s airways,” Kolbinger said.

 

“This is very important. It’s a critical lifesaving tool,” he said. “We are grateful to LPI and their generosity.”

 

Kolbinger said the Monticello Fire Dept. has had a LUCAS 2 device at their station for at least a year and have now upgraded their allotment to four so the devices are in all their critical care vehicles for emergency use.

 

According to the LUCAS website, cardiac arrest, otherwise called “clinical death” occurs when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops pumping and the blood circulation halts. The patient becomes unconscious, without any breathing or pulse. Sudden cardiac arrest can be reversible if the patient receives immediate care and the cause of the arrest can be found and treated appropriately. A big part of that care is chest compressions.

 

“In many cases, we are doing CPR for 20 to 30 minutes,”Kolbinger said of a cardiac arrest call. “Ten minutes on the scene and then 10 minutes to the hospital on average. You don’t want to stop CPR for more than five seconds or you lose the pressure in the body.”

 

Rescuer fatigue is also a factor, Kolbinger said, which makes the LUCAS devices a great benefit.

 

Normally, when an EMT performs CPR, they have to switch off with another person every two minutes because CPR is physically demanding.

 

Kolbinger said the Becker Fire Dept. emergency crews perform maybe four-to-five CPR life-saving procedures a year, but those four-to-five victims are forever grateful.

In August of 2013, a  woman from Melbourne, AU who was clinically dead for 42 minutes, left a hospital after being treated with a LUCAS CPR device.

Vanessa Tanasio, 41, started feeling chest pains at her Narre Warren home and her mother called for help and an ambulance arrived soon after.

 

One of Tanasio's main coronary arteries was completely blocked and she needed numerous defibrillator shocks, including one in the ambulance on the way to the Monash Medical Centre just to stay alive.

 

When she arrived she was conscious but soon went into full cardiac arrest.

 

Clinically, she remained “dead” for 42 minutes. It was at that time emergency personnel strapped on the LUCAS device and pressed the button.

 

While the Lucas device was pumping Tanasio's chest, doctors opened an artery and inserted a stent to allow the blood to flow again.

 

“We know that with the LUCAS device we maintained oxygenation, we maintained the blood pressure to allow the blood to get to the brain to give oxygen,” cardiologist Dr Wally Ahmar said.

 

“Without that, you know, anyone longer than a small, even a fraction of that time would end up with neurological deficits.”

 

A week later, Tanasio — a cigarette smoker with a family history of heart disease — was discharged from hospital.

 

According to the hospital, the LUCAS machine was going so long that at one point it ran out of battery power. The device comes with backup batteries and a plug-in for conventional electric use.

 

Kolbinger had sent out letters to a handful of local companies requesting a donation to go towards the purchase of the LUCAS 2 device. Little did he know he’d get a check for the entire $16,000 from a company willing to step up and help make their community safer and healthier.

 

“We are very grateful for the donation from LPI and all the donations they’ve given us through the years,” said Kolbinger. “This device is something we’ve wanted and needed for quite a while now and we are so excited to finally have one in the department ready to be used.”