Minn. EMS uses $4 million grant for automated CPR devices

By John Lundy
Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH, Minn. — A $4 million charitable grant will be used to save lives in rural Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

The money from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will be used to install a device that provides automated CPR in ambulances and hospitals across the state, the health department said in a news release.

The device, called the Physio-Control LUCAS 2 Chest Compression System, already is widely used in the Twin Cities, the news release said. But 80 percent of ambulances and hospitals in the rest of the state don’t have it.

Physio-Control, based in Redmond, Wash., purchased Duluth-based Sansio earlier this year. In Duluth’s Technology Village, the company produces health-related software products.

Dr. Ed Ehlinger, the state’s health commissioner, said Physio-Control’s device can improve survival rates for victims of cardiac arrest. The survival rate in Minnesota now is 14 percent, compared with less than 5 percent nationally.

When cardiac arrest occurs, the heart stops abruptly, the victim collapses and quickly loses consciousness, the news release said. If a normal heart rhythm is not restored within minutes, the victim usually dies. Automated CPR increases the patient’s chances by consistently delivering chest compressions.

In a fact sheet, Physio-Control cited studies showing that the effectiveness of manual chest compressions can drop rapidly in as little as one minute because of “rescuer fatigue.”

But with the device, a Wisconsin man who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest was treated with automated CPR for 2 hours and 45 minutes en route to and at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, the fact sheet noted. That occurred last year.

Training and distribution will begin early next year, the health department said. The grant also covers training costs.

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©2014 the Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)