May 22, 2008 5:52 pm US/Central
Automated CPR Machine Helps Simplify Saving Lives
BUFFALO, Minn. (WCCO) ―
A new automated CPR machine is helping save the lives of heart attack patients.
The automatic resuscitator is called a LUCAS. Quick and efficient, it only takes about 20 seconds to start the machine. It can perform about 100 compressions a minute.
"This is kind of giving a standardized compression for the patient," said Dr. Dustin Timmons. He works at the Buffalo Hospital E.R.
The suction cup device is attached to a patient's chest. Air then pulls the patients chest up and down, drawing blood and oxygen through the body.
"It also gives you kind of a negative pull back up on the chest, just like a bicycle pedal where you attach to the pedal. You're not only pushing down, but you're also pulling up, which helps pull blood back into the heart," said Timmons.
It can be used on the ground, in a bed or on a stretcher in the ambulance. Allina has 50 of the devices in its ambulance fleet. Buffalo Hospital has had theirs for a couple of months. Doctors say it's much better than the manual way.
"No one wants to back down out of doing compressions, because they think they're giving up. Well, really this just takes that out of the equation. It allows the employee to be helping in other ways," said Timmons.
If you were performing CPR the old way, you would need two people. With LUCAS, you only need one.
"You're gonna need more than 1 person doing compressions, because you simply tire out if you've done it for one or two minutes, you're tired and you start to lose effective compression," said Timmons.
With the device, size is really not a factor. Children as young as 12 can be treated with it.
"As long as a person fits in between these and is above that age cutoff, it should work just fine," said Timmons.
Each of the machines cost about $15,000. Allina said they are hoping to get more of the CPR machines at their other hospitals.
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