Calhoun County Emergency Medical Service will purchase five LUCAS automated chest compression devices, with the help of $42,000 from the Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation, which holds the license for Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson.

The LUCAS provides chest compressions on cardiac patients, which allows responders to perform other tasks such as clearing the airway or providing medication.

It also can do it better than a human could, said Kerrie Hull, EMS coordinator.

“Manual CPR is good, but it is very tiring. We change out every two minutes,” Hull said. “Based on how long you’ve been doing it, the compression depth we can go gets less and less, which means we are not doing as well for the patient trying to pump the blood around.”

Research has shown effectiveness goes down after about two minutes of doing manual chest compressions, Paramedic Jarid Kuchenreuther added.

But the LUCAS — short for Lund University Cardiopulminary Assist System — provides a continuous rate, and sets its speed by measuring chest circumference.

It can provide compressions for 45 minutes at a steady speed on one battery pack, said Paramedic Amy Skramstad. The ambulance always carries a second battery pack, and the LUCAS can also be plugged in.

And it can provide good chest compressions even when driving down the road, which is very difficult to do manually, Hull said.

“It’s moving. Any wind, anything like that, we pull back off the chest. There’s not much room, and it’s a safety hazard,” Hull said. “So we were doing a lot more staying at the scene, working the cardiac arrest on-scene trying to get things done before we would start heading to the hospital.

“It’s an approved method, but if we can get to the hospital sooner, it’s better.”

Calhoun County EMS provides paramedic services throughout the county, supplementing the volunteer emergency responders in small towns.

Currently the service has two LUCAS units — one in its Rockwell City location and one in Lake City. With the Greene County grant, they will purchase one for the second ambulance at each location, plus machines for Lohrville, Farnhamville and Manson.

“If I need to go to Lohrville, or Farnhamville or Manson, that’s anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes away,” Hull said.

Sometimes there are only two responders, Skramstad added — and one has to drive.

Counties throughout Iowa are getting LUCAS devices over the next three years, thanks to a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Hull said. Funds from the grant are distributed based on population.

Calhoun County got two, and it’s already used them four or five times since late September.

It costs $60,000 to get five machines. With Grow Greene County covering $42,000, the Calhoun County Board of Supervisors agreed to fund the rest, Hull said.

Of course, what people do in the minutes before an ambulance can arrive is still vital. Manual CPR needs to be started right away, whenever possible.

“We still need people trained in CPR, as bystanders,” Hull said. “If they are down for too long, this isn’t going to bring them back.”