Firefighters/EMTs Demonstrate Autopulse Device
May 4, 2021 at 10:54 p.m.
Firefighters/EMTs Demonstrate Autopulse Device
By David [email protected]
Autopulses are mechanical CPR devices.
The demonstration began with a dummy laying on the floor in the City Hall Council Chambers. Fire Chief Mike Wilson set up the scenario.
“He has just suffered a cardiac arrest. I’ve called 911, requesting Lutheran EMS and Warsaw Fire to come to the scene. They’re going to walk in here momentarily and work it like it was a real CPR call,” Wilson said.
As firefighters/EMTs Capt. Brian Zehring, Colyn Iden, Lucas Ellsworth and Jason Neher quickly came into the room and surrounded the “man” suffering the cardiac arrest, WWFT EMS Chief Chris Fancil explained what the Fire Territory board was seeing and what the firefighters/EMTs were doing.
“So what you’re actually going to see is our part of this. We work in conjunction with Lutheran EMS, obviously, and their paramedics advanced life support transport system that they have,” Fancil said. “These guys are going to come in and this would be the first half of a cardiac arrest response. This is what you would see in your own home.”
He said the guys would deploy the Autopulse.
“It’s a pretty choreographed happening. We practiced for a couple of months to get this right, to get this the way we want it,” Fancil said.
The firefighters/EMTs have predetermined positions and know where they’re supposed to be and what they’re supposed to do, he said.
“So, what we’ve talked about before is manual or CPR period is what saves lives. So you notice that we have a member (Iden) that jumped right on the chest that started those compressions. That’s his only focus,” Fancil explained.
Neher cut the dummy’s shirt, trying not to disrupt Iden’s compressions so there was continuous CPR throughout the event.
Ellsworth deployed the Autopulse, getting it in position and getting the shirt out of the way. The defibrillator pads were put on and the dummy was laid back down and put into position. The compression band was put on the dummy. All this rapidly took place while compressions continued.
“What we have found is within 4-5 seconds, the science tells us that the heart loses its energy for potential conversion with defibrillation and drug therapy, so they do not want to delay anything for any more than they have to,” Fancil explained.
As the Autopulse ran, it compressed at 80 times a minute and “does a 20% reduction in the circumference of the chest and it is compressing all four chambers of the heart at the same time,” Fancil said.
The device is secured to the shoulders of the patient so it doesn’t move around as the patient is moved. The Autopulse does do a pause during the compressions and comes with a cart to carry a patient. The firefighters/EMTs will raise the patient’s head to about 30 degrees to decrease the pressure on the head to allow a better blood return in and out of the brain.
“Typically, what happens is, we get started on this process. Lutheran is always right behind us. They come in and then we continue care, working together,” Fancil said.
He said cardiac arrests look a lot different now than they used to.
Tony Doyle, Lutheran EMS manager, said with the Autopulse devices, the partnership between Lutheran EMS and all of the Kosciusko County fire departments takes a lot less people to run a cardiac arrest than it used to. He said they train and work together and cardiac arrests aren’t a high-stress situation.
Lutheran EMS interim Director Alicia Elder said they’ve had 22 in the first quarter.
“The key to this, and Tony mentioned it, is this is a countywide program. We’ve worked with the county fire association to get these in all the fire departments, and then we’ve gone out and trained with them, worked with them, and they’ve done the same, to make this program work,” Fancil stated. “It’s a great benefit to this county to have all of this ability.”
Doyle said with the shortage of manpower, the Autopulse device is a big help.
Zehring said, “Like Tony said, it’s freed up a lot of time. We could be doing other things, whether Lutheran is behind us or they’ve got a delay, we can start dropping airways, we can start bagging them. We can do a lot more stuff now that we’re free from doing chest compressions. So it frees up a lot more time, we can get farther into patient care.”
Also, at vehicle accidents, the Autopulse can free up some manpower.
If a patient is on the second floor or basement, the firefighters/EMTs can strap the Autopulse on the patient, turn it on and carry that patient up or down the stairs and the device will still run. The device compresses a lot better than the firefighters/EMTs do, they said.
Fancil pointed out that, “The irony here is that this shift was actually on duty the day we put these in service in our department here in Warsaw. This shift actually deployed them twice in an afternoon and got pulses back both times.”
The shift wasn’t supposed to use the Autopulses quite yet, but there was a need for them.
“They deployed it, the first time, on the west side of the city. That gentleman is home and alive and well. The second time, the gentleman didn’t fare as well and he did pass away. He had a lot of other issues. But that was within a two-hour span,” Fancil said. “These devices got used twice that afternoon.”
The third time Warsaw used the Autopulse device was the following shift at another station. Sadly, Fancil said, that patient didn’t survive.
“We want every advantage to send people home and that’s what this does for us. It gives us another advantage to try to make that happen. And these guys have been great about learning it and making it theirs and getting really good at it,” Fancil said.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said he could certainly understand the efficiency of compressions with the device.
“It’s probably one of the most important things we’ve ever done in emergency response medicine,” he said.
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Autopulses are mechanical CPR devices.
The demonstration began with a dummy laying on the floor in the City Hall Council Chambers. Fire Chief Mike Wilson set up the scenario.
“He has just suffered a cardiac arrest. I’ve called 911, requesting Lutheran EMS and Warsaw Fire to come to the scene. They’re going to walk in here momentarily and work it like it was a real CPR call,” Wilson said.
As firefighters/EMTs Capt. Brian Zehring, Colyn Iden, Lucas Ellsworth and Jason Neher quickly came into the room and surrounded the “man” suffering the cardiac arrest, WWFT EMS Chief Chris Fancil explained what the Fire Territory board was seeing and what the firefighters/EMTs were doing.
“So what you’re actually going to see is our part of this. We work in conjunction with Lutheran EMS, obviously, and their paramedics advanced life support transport system that they have,” Fancil said. “These guys are going to come in and this would be the first half of a cardiac arrest response. This is what you would see in your own home.”
He said the guys would deploy the Autopulse.
“It’s a pretty choreographed happening. We practiced for a couple of months to get this right, to get this the way we want it,” Fancil said.
The firefighters/EMTs have predetermined positions and know where they’re supposed to be and what they’re supposed to do, he said.
“So, what we’ve talked about before is manual or CPR period is what saves lives. So you notice that we have a member (Iden) that jumped right on the chest that started those compressions. That’s his only focus,” Fancil explained.
Neher cut the dummy’s shirt, trying not to disrupt Iden’s compressions so there was continuous CPR throughout the event.
Ellsworth deployed the Autopulse, getting it in position and getting the shirt out of the way. The defibrillator pads were put on and the dummy was laid back down and put into position. The compression band was put on the dummy. All this rapidly took place while compressions continued.
“What we have found is within 4-5 seconds, the science tells us that the heart loses its energy for potential conversion with defibrillation and drug therapy, so they do not want to delay anything for any more than they have to,” Fancil explained.
As the Autopulse ran, it compressed at 80 times a minute and “does a 20% reduction in the circumference of the chest and it is compressing all four chambers of the heart at the same time,” Fancil said.
The device is secured to the shoulders of the patient so it doesn’t move around as the patient is moved. The Autopulse does do a pause during the compressions and comes with a cart to carry a patient. The firefighters/EMTs will raise the patient’s head to about 30 degrees to decrease the pressure on the head to allow a better blood return in and out of the brain.
“Typically, what happens is, we get started on this process. Lutheran is always right behind us. They come in and then we continue care, working together,” Fancil said.
He said cardiac arrests look a lot different now than they used to.
Tony Doyle, Lutheran EMS manager, said with the Autopulse devices, the partnership between Lutheran EMS and all of the Kosciusko County fire departments takes a lot less people to run a cardiac arrest than it used to. He said they train and work together and cardiac arrests aren’t a high-stress situation.
Lutheran EMS interim Director Alicia Elder said they’ve had 22 in the first quarter.
“The key to this, and Tony mentioned it, is this is a countywide program. We’ve worked with the county fire association to get these in all the fire departments, and then we’ve gone out and trained with them, worked with them, and they’ve done the same, to make this program work,” Fancil stated. “It’s a great benefit to this county to have all of this ability.”
Doyle said with the shortage of manpower, the Autopulse device is a big help.
Zehring said, “Like Tony said, it’s freed up a lot of time. We could be doing other things, whether Lutheran is behind us or they’ve got a delay, we can start dropping airways, we can start bagging them. We can do a lot more stuff now that we’re free from doing chest compressions. So it frees up a lot more time, we can get farther into patient care.”
Also, at vehicle accidents, the Autopulse can free up some manpower.
If a patient is on the second floor or basement, the firefighters/EMTs can strap the Autopulse on the patient, turn it on and carry that patient up or down the stairs and the device will still run. The device compresses a lot better than the firefighters/EMTs do, they said.
Fancil pointed out that, “The irony here is that this shift was actually on duty the day we put these in service in our department here in Warsaw. This shift actually deployed them twice in an afternoon and got pulses back both times.”
The shift wasn’t supposed to use the Autopulses quite yet, but there was a need for them.
“They deployed it, the first time, on the west side of the city. That gentleman is home and alive and well. The second time, the gentleman didn’t fare as well and he did pass away. He had a lot of other issues. But that was within a two-hour span,” Fancil said. “These devices got used twice that afternoon.”
The third time Warsaw used the Autopulse device was the following shift at another station. Sadly, Fancil said, that patient didn’t survive.
“We want every advantage to send people home and that’s what this does for us. It gives us another advantage to try to make that happen. And these guys have been great about learning it and making it theirs and getting really good at it,” Fancil said.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said he could certainly understand the efficiency of compressions with the device.
“It’s probably one of the most important things we’ve ever done in emergency response medicine,” he said.
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