In its meeting on Tuesday evening, the Piedmont City Council approved the fire department’s purchase of a chest compression system device, as well as the hiring of two new employees.
Piedmont fire chief Mike Ledbetter said the LUCAS device, with a price tag of $14,993, would be purchased out of fire tax money.
“I’ve trained with this piece of equipment before. I’ve used it in the field a number of times. I would like to have one to go on a fire truck in the event we get a cardiac arrest and an ambulance is delayed or if we beat the ambulance (on the scene),” Ledbetter said. “In just a few seconds, we’ve got it attached to a patient. We can turn it on. It does chest compressions for us and can free us up to do other things.
In my opinion this is one of the best devices that has been invented for cardiac arrest in the field in my 32 years of doing this. It’s a game changer.”