Connections: June 2024 - 5

New London Hospital's
LUCAS
SAVE
LIVES
paramedic for 35 years, and performed
CPR hundreds of times. " You're pressing on
someone's chest an inch or two, 80 or more
times a minute, depending on their size and
age, " he says. " Because it's so rigorous, to
do it efficiently-at the right rate and right
compression-you can only keep it going for
about two minutes. "
Restoring a heartbeat can take longer
than that. And, if a heartbeat can't be
restored, paramedics are required to
continue CPR for 20 minutes to meet the
criteria of " not recoverable. " Other factors
can also increase the time needed. However
long it is, team members have to spell
one another.
That works well if the team consists of five
or more people, which is the case in large
communities, but at New London Hospital
and other smaller hospitals, there's just a
two-person team. " Two people running a
cardiac arrest is not enough, " he says.
Even though the use of LUCAS devices
In 2019, that problem was solved. At the
NHL Annual Benefit Gala, donors contributed
$70,000 for the purchase of five LUCAS
devices, one for each of the ambulances. The
LUCAS device is an easy-to-use mechanical
chest compression system that can
efficiently perform CPR for as long as the
battery lasts, up to three hours.
" The LUCAS basically applies the rate
that you want at the depth you want for as
long as you want, " Aumann says. Not only
that, it frees up the paramedics so they
can do other therapies, like managing the
airway, monitoring the heart rhythm and
defibrillation. It also eliminates the hazard, to
both the patient and the paramedic, of trying
to do CPR in the back of a moving ambulance.
was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) in 2009, Aumann says
there are physicians and paramedics who
won't use them, feeling that standard CPR is
safer and more effective. Comparative studies
by federal and state agencies are ongoing.
" It's an evolving issue, " Aumann says.
Each year, he and his two-person team
respond to as many as 25 cardiac arrests
in the New London Hospital coverage area,
which includes New London and six other
towns. Last summer, they were called to the
scene of a drowning. The older woman was
unresponsive, not breathing and had no pulse.
Paramedics applied the LUCAS, freeing
up team members to do a complete analysis
of the situation. Approximately 10 minutes
later, the victim's pulse and breathing
were restored.
A device helping paramedics
" Rigorous. "
That's how Derick Aumann, director of New London Hospital's
Emergency Medical Services, describes the physical demands of doing CPR.
And he should know. He's been a
Connections: June 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Connections: June 2024
