The LUCAS CPR bot
By Peter Rojas 
posted September 7th 2005 12:30PM
posted September 7th 2005 12:30PM
CPR is one of those things that you probably don't want to leave in the hands of someone who doesn't know exactly
what they're doing, which is apparently why an emergency service in Britain has outfitted 100 of its ambulances with an
automatic resuscitation system known as the LUCAS CPR. Besides being able being able to perform CPR consistently (i.e.
not too fast or too slow), the bot also has the advantage of never getting tired.
[Via Mike's List]
"CPR is one of those things that you probably dont want to leave in the hands of someone who doesnt know exactly what theyre doing"
Please tell me this does NOT apply to ambulance EMT's in Great Britain. Seriously, I'm all for technology that saves lives, but shouldn't these be the people who absolutely know how to perform CPR correctly?
They've had these things for long time. The problem is, they tend to unseat themselves as the patient is moved around, and then it crushes ribs. -They were called, "Thumpers." You'd have a heart-attack, and then the worms attacked.
http://www.roselleparkems.org/history_5.htm
I think the tiring part is of the greater importance. I agree that this shouldn't be an excuse to hire unskilled EMT's, but I don't want to die because he/she's out of shape and can't keep pressing my chest until I come to.
As an EMT, let me sat this: CPR is hard work, even with two people. Imagine using a bench press for up to an hour, with 0.8 second reps, and someone dies if you stop. There are only short breaks for rescue breathing, and switching with your partner, if s/he exists.
cool, it is is powered by compressed oxygen or air and can keep going as long as is necessary.
LUCAS?!?!?!
Do you know why the English dring warm beer? Lucas Refrigeraters!
I had 2 MGs a '68 B and a '71 B-GT... the head light switch had three settings, Off, Flicker, and Off.
People are gonna die!
CPR is definitely hard work. Besides there is a good chance the victim may be bleeding and/or vomiting during the process making it dangerous to the EMT. If this can be perfected by robots it's great!
the thing that this piece of equiptment does, is that it allows more concentration on the administration of drugs and other means of keeping a patient alive
How long does it take to set that thing up, though?
I'm surrounded by lifeguard friends, and to *me*, it just seems a little odd. Yes, CPR can be tiresome, you may break a few ribs, things like that happen. My friends have told me about having to break a baby's ribs in order to perform CPR properly. It happens. But my concern after reading this was "how long does it take to setup this equipment?". You never know, CPR can make the difference of either life or death, and if you're taking 3~5 minutes just setting this up, you may have already lost the victim.
Nice thought, but take a look at the thing. It must take forever to set up. But it looks like an EMT-B can set it up while the paramedic is intubating.
It looks like it is mainly meant for those commercial ambulances where there may only be 2 people on the truck.
I agree with #4, CPR really is hard work. You're guaranteed to come out drenched in sweat after it and many times with no luck.
http://bravomedic.blogspot.com
There are plenty of medicolegal reasons why this is an important labor-saving device. Having to do CPR distracts from other tasks like med administration, etc. But this is not really a lifesaving device. If the EMTs/paramedics aren't able to restart your heart with a defibrillator within a minute or two of their arrival, the chances of your heart being restarted at all is well under 5%, with or without CPR.
I'll bet that it can be set up in less than half a minute. The device has a short board that is slid under the patient, then the "legs" on the device lock on to the ends of it. I'm pretty sure that the folks who designed it spent some time on figuring out how to make it go on fast.
http://www.jolife.com/ has better pics and more info.
I'll bet that it can be set up in less than half a minute. The device has a short board that is slid under the patient, then the "legs" on the device lock on to the ends of it. I'm pretty sure that the folks who designed it spent some time on figuring out how to make it go on fast.
http://www.jolife.com/ has better pics and more info.
Made by Lucas, the "Prince of Darkness"? If you ever owned a British Sports Car from the 50s or 60s you would have a hart attack just thnking about putting your life in care of a Lucas procduct.
haha... My name is Lucas.
Hmmm. I've done CPR so far just once on a real person. (It didn't take. Only works about 16% of the time is what I've heard apocryphally...) but I've run a lot of major medicals and traumas.
In my experience, codes and major traumas are all about getting things where they need to be and keeping the rest of the crap out of the way. The actual procedures are pretty drilled into everybody, and short of a full medic, you ain't making decisions. You're going by the mental manual, and dealing with crap. (By crap I mean getting in the door and up the stairs with a backboard, aid bag, maybe intubation bag, O2 and defibrillator, moving an unconscious person around, onto a board, out the door of the bedroom, down the stairs, onto a cot, into the truck, keeping them bagged and the hoses out of the way, getting the portable O2 onto someone's back and out the door with them, hanging IVs without tripping on them or choking anyone, keeping arms and legs strapped down, the defibrillator and/or EKG hooked up and again out of the way - all these things, of course have like 15 feet of hose or cord associated with them for no discernible reason - blah blah blah. So another piece of what looks like 20 pound gear (and Goddamnit you know it has its own special nylon jump bag, or tell me they aren't shipping it in a special backpack because that is just hilarious, and has to hook up to the G-d portable O2 with another 20 feet of tubing) to do the one thing I can do with my hands fails to titillate.
Now, however, I usually have like a 12 minute transport time max, and my trauma codes are in an Maryland State Police Trooper before you can say "nice helo." 12 minutes of CPR is about all I can hack at one sitting, and I am in decent shape. If I were in a more rural ambulance service, I could see using a thumper - IMPORTANT CAVEAT - if it were mounted in the vehicle. Ditto, actually for a flight medic.
UK EMTs, however, are A) more trained than your average US EMT-B, they seem to be more like EMT-Is in a lot of ways, so there's more sophisticated stuff they could be doing, and B) have sometimes of response time problems de to traffic or staffing or something I don't know. So you may be looking at ONE EMT-I type getting off a motorcycle and having a good chunk of bystanders-watching alone time with a coding patient, in which case, yeah, I could want one of these guys. (Oh, hey, http://randomreality.blogware.com for those of you into this stuff overseas - he's a suburban london RRU EMT, and writes some neat stuff. )
Does it come in white?
The part that does chest compressions might not take a while, but ventilations will. The machine doesn't look like it can do a bag-valve (I'd like to see a machine that could). That patient has to be intubated for that thing to work.
16%?! That's a really high rate, usual rates are 2-8%. Got to agree with you WOV. And yes, the UK's EMTs are more advanced.
http://bravomedic.blogspot.com
If it's bad enough that you are going to give me cpr...
LET ME DIE.
Seriously- your chances of CPR doing anytying other then insuring you have a miserably short life hooked up to a machine or brain dead is pretty minimal.
Yeah, LUCAS doesn't get tired, unless it runs out of oxygen. Ironic isn't it?
Also if you had the time to set that up, wouldn't you want to setup an automatic defibrillator instead? Does the defibrillator short circuit LUCAS if hooked up at same time?
It appears to be mainly for paramedics or intermediates (ALS- advanced life support). I assume you would check the rhythm first and if it is v-fib or v-tach then give the stacked shocks. Not all rhythms are shockable.
http://bravomedic.blogspot.com
(1) The device isn't built in England and has nothing to do with the corporate entity that made automotive components.
(2) It bears little resemblance to the "Thumper" which was useless technology 30 years ago.
(3) CPR is hard work and even where your response time to hospital is 3 or 4 minutes the hospital staff are no more able to maintain CPR for satisfactory lengths of time than paramedics.
before slagging the device do some research
Answer to some questions:
About setup-time:
I know for a fact that all personnel who uses the LUCAS device is required to go through a user training. The training session is completed with both written tests (theory) and practical testing. And in order to pass the practical tests, the user is among other things required to unpack, correctly attach and start the LUCAS within 20 secs.
#18) No, it does not. It saves lives. Does it matter what colour it is? :)
#21) Since there are no electronics in LUCAS, it cannot shortcircuit! So, no, it will work during defib.
Finally, I would also just like to say: LUCAS has nothing to do with either refrigerators or MGs. People will live! :)