Shown with all seven LUCAS devices ready to give to fire departments, from left, Helicon Fire Assistant Chief Greg Ackley; Winston County Commissioner Rutger Hyche; Vanessa King, assistant director of Northwest Alabama Resource Conservation and Development Council; Winston County Firefighter Association President Cody Wakefield; Winston EMA Director A.J. Brown; Lauranne James, executive director of NWA RC&D and Winston County Commission Chairman Roger Hayes.
WINSTON COUNTY - After delays in paperwork and shuffling funding sources, LUCAS - or automated CPR devices - have been distributed to the remaining seven fire departments in the county which have been without this key life-saving equipment.
The announcement that all seven LUCAS devices had arrived and were ready to distribute was made at a recent Winston County Commission meeting. The commission had to juggle funding around in order to purchase the devices, each one costing about $15,000, county officials pointed out.
The fire departments, which did not have a LUCAS device received them during a special presentation Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the Winston County Firefighters Association meeting held at the Helicon Fire Station. Those departments were Arley, Addison, Ashridge, Black Pond, Central, Delmar and Pebble.
The LUCAS device is designed to use an automated pump, operated either by electricity or battery, to pump 120 beats per minute on a patient’s chest for 45 minutes straight on battery power. Two batteries came with each LUCAS device, county officials stated.
“These things are already a game changer” pointed out Winston County Firefighters Association President Cody Wakefield.
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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