Every 90 seconds or less, someone in the United States suffers from cardiac arrest – more than 460,000 people in one year. The importance of effective CPR has been demonstrated, especially for those victims who do not or cannot respond to defibrillation.

These patients need CPR to restore blood flow to the heart and to allow medications to circulate properly within the body. Studies have proven that manual CPR is difficult to perform properly, even by trained and experienced professionals. Improperly preformed CPR will not adequately restore the blood flow.

Emergency crews from Onaway Area Ambulance Service (OAAS) have had a device since last summer that can perform quality, effective CPR for a patient who has a 30-plus minute drive ahead to the hospital, sometimes longer on snowy roads. The machine is called “Life-Stat CPR,” and is made by Michigan Instruments of Grand Rapids.

It does two things at one time: it does the CPR, but it also breathes for the patient. Life-Stat provides the American Heart Association’s (AHA) recommended 30 compressions every two minutes – without fail.

“The longer you do it, the more tired you get,” said OAAS manager Dallas Hyde. “Without even realizing it, you think you are pushing just as hard as you were when you first started, but you’re not.”

Life-Stat pauses the compressions to automatically pump oxygen into the body. The oxygen provides the power to operate the device. “You take the human element out of it, especially on the ventilator part, where one person every six seconds would try to concentrate and administer a breath,” said EMT Jason Grainger.

THE PATIENT is fitted with an oxygen mask and strapped to a black board. The piston-like portion, which compresses into the chest, is then slid into an opening in the board. The EMT makes the adjustment to fit the patient’s chest, so the compressions are performed in the right location and level. Then, it’s turned on.

It sounds like a stamping device in a typical machine shop, but is not supposed to damage the chest. It can fit small adults up to 300-pound patients. Older devices couldn’t fit larger people.

“It gives you better CPR and it frees up your hands,” said Hyde. “So, now, instead of me doing CPR, stopping to push a drug, and getting back on the chest and doing CPR like we used to, the CPR is continuous and that gives the patient a lot better chance of survivability. Obviously, early CPR is the big thing.”

This type of equipment has been around since the 1970s, but what makes this equipment unique is the built-in ventilator. Plus, it doesn’t cost that much to run. A small oxygen tanks cost only $3 to refill, and if blood gets on a strap it can be decontaminated and reused. Past devices had straps that would cost $50 to $100 a pop. Michigan Instruments sells each machine at $14,000 apiece, but they offered OAA three for $21,000.

“Each on of our ambulances has a Michigan Instruments Life-Stat device,” said Hyde. OAAS, which covers eight municipalities, employs 20 people, two fulltime and the rest part time. Grainger said he’s pleased to have it available for use.