Bernalillo County Firefighter/Paramedics have a new tool to help them save lives.
Instead of hands-on CPR, they’re now using the Zoll Auto Pulse device. It does manual compressions on patients, which paramedics say is more successful and less traumatic.
"(With) hands-on CPR, you're putting all your force on the heel of your hand and there's a potential to actually cause some damage to the patient,” said Kurt Silva, Lieutenant Paramedic for the Bernalillo County Fire Department. “This is more of a circumferential kind of a squeezing of the chest rather than just pounding on it." Paramedic Gabe DeBaltz says they will still start with manual chest compressions, but then the device will take over.
"The machine will automatically size to the chest," said DeBaltz.
If a patient moves around or shifts while connected to the Auto Pulse, it’s designed to automatically stop.