West Point Fire & Rescue has a new piece of equipment that could help save lives after purchasing a LUCAS cardiac respiratory assist system using a $15,000 contribution from the Town of West Point.
During Monday’s town council meeting, West Point Fire Chief Tim Martin demonstrated the new device and thanked the council for its help in buying it.
“The council has stepped up and taken public safety and the wellbeing of the community into their hands by helping us do this,” he said.
Martin said the device performs sustained CPR on a person, which is helpful for a first responder because anyone performing CPR for an extended period of time will get tired.
“A person can only do effective CPR for so long, and then it starts getting sloppy,” he said. “This thing can do it for 45 minutes to an hour.”