BARGERSVILLE, Ind. — The LUCAS CPR device is a mechanical chest compression system that has been around for years. But now, it has an extra sense of value because of the COVID-19 crisis.
"Being able to apply this machine and the quality CPR that it does provide allows us to take one person that would normally be doing the chest compressions and actually pull them away," said Bargersville Deputy Fire Chief Michael Pruitt. "So there's still care going on, but it's one less person that has to be right in the middle of that workspace risking potential [coronavirus] exposure. Of course, we wear our PPE, so we reduce that in the first place, but this provides that option."
More than 60 fire departments across central Indiana are now relying on the LUCAS CPR device to provide consistent chest compressions, while allowing their first responders and paramedics to properly socially distance themselves from patients in an emergency situation.
The device provides hands-free CPR at a time when first responders are trying to lower their risk of coronavirus exposure by not having to perform manual chest compressions.
"For us here, being a smaller department, one of the biggest advantages for this machine is that we don't have to include an additional apparatus, so that's four more people that we're not bringing on to a scene to risk exposure to [coronavirus]," said Lynn Goodner, an EMS lieutenant with the Bargersville Fire Department. "That allows us to limit the number of personnel that may have a COVID exposure on a scene."
Each of these machines costs around $16,000, but the Lawrence Fire Department was recently able to buy three new LUCAS CPR devices for just under $40,000 total because they traded in their older equipment, according to a LUCAS rep.
More than 60 LUCAS devices have been distributed in central Indiana:
- Hamilton County – 18
- Grant County – 8
- Marion County – 7
- Wabash County – 5
- Delaware County – 4
- Wayne County – 4
- Boone County – 4
- Johnson County – 3
- Montgomery County – 2
- Hancock County – 2
- Clinton County – 2
- Henry County – 1
- Howard County – 1