Doctors report that Vanessa Tanasio, 41, a mother of two from the suburb of Narre Warren, Australia needed numerous defibrillator shocks, the use of the automatic CPR device LUCAS 2, and the use of a stent to unblock an artery to re-establish proper blood flow to her heart.
The $15,000 LUCAS 2 device used last Monday to save the life of Vanessa Tanasio, automatically performs CPR or chest compressions to maintain the circulation of oxygen to the heart and brain. The device can free one medic to work on other Advanced Life Support tasks.
Ambulances in Western Australia are equipped with the Lucas 2 device.
At Monash Medical Centre, while the Lucas device was pumping Ms Tanasio’s chest, doctors opened an artery and inserted a stent to allow blood to flow again to her heart.
Critics say there is no proof the device works better than manual CPR, and batteries can be an issue (batteries can be switched while the device is being used). Some are concerned that the device is just one more maintenance issue to worry about. Some critics also point out the absence of manual CPR during the time (less than 20 seconds)
LUCAS 2 Training – Physio Control.
Cypress Creek EMS demonstrates how quickly and easily the LUCAS Chest Compression System can be applied with minimal interruption to manual chest compressions (Cumulative interruption 11.6 second).
Narre Warren is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
They might need the LUCAS 2 in Australia, “paramedic and union delegate Danny Hill says paramedics took a 71-year-old man to the Frankston emergency department for chest pain on June 23, but he was forced to wait on an ambulance trolley for two hours. Staff could not find room to treat him at Frankston Hospital and arranged for the patient to be transferred to the Monash Medical Centre under a doctor’s escort.”
THE AGE Victoria Hospital woes hit ambulance services hard
