VIDEO: Life-saving, state-of-the-art technology is now in the hands of a rural volunteer fire department in northeast Minnesota. “It’s an amazing thing for a rural fire department to have this, where only typically ambulance services have this or maybe a sheriff’s deputy,” said Gary Gagnon of the Cotton Volunteer Fire Department (CFD).
For years, the members of CFD have been asking for the Lund University Cardiac Assist System, commonly called the LUCAS machine, because of the impact it’ll have on the large community they protect. “We’re in kind of a gray area here. We’re 25 minutes from an ambulance in the Range, at least 25 minutes from an ambulance in Duluth, and at least 25 minutes from an ambulance in the Meadowlands, and at least that far for an air ambulance.
With the device fitting in a backpack, members are also able to take the device when they respond to calls in a more difficult location to get to for an ambulance. “If we have a cardiac event way out on a snowmobile trail or someone comes out of their deer stand and has a cardiac event, we can hike on in there with this thing on our backs and we’re ready to go right there,” said Gagnon. But the main reason Gagnon was so persistent is the rising age of the rural population and their department, as the high-level machine is also much more consistent than the volunteers.
