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Your LOCAL Media since 1918! VOLUME 108: ISSUE 03
www.tofieldmerc.com
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
New CPR device purchased by Beaver EMS Kari Janzen Staff Reporter
Beaver Emergency Medical Services (BEMS) recently purchased another Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System (LUCAS) 3, a chest compression system, being able to do so with half of the cost, $10,000, received from the now-dissolved Beaver County Victim Services Unit. BEMS Operations Manager Alex Kyle said that the LUCAS is like having a third person on the ambulance unit, freeing the paramedics to provide other medical care at the same time that CPR is being performed. “CPR is actually pretty time consuming and in a rural area like us, we don't have as many resources. In Calgary, you might have two or three units responding to a cardiac arrest, where here we do have two units, but they're not always available. Having a CPR device that is dedicated to doing the chest compressions is a real lifesaver from the practitioner standpoint, because if you have the machine, it can do it, and then we can do our other treat-
ments, like airway, give medications, defibrillate, all sorts of stuff,” Kyle said. Kyle said that CPR cannot effectively be performed for longer than two minutes, and sometimes EMS will deal with a cardiac arrest for 40 minutes on scene. “That's a lot of time, tiring people out, but the LUCAS never gets tired. It has a battery and can run for 40-plus minutes, and even if you had to run a cardiac arrest for longer and the battery got low, we can actually plug it into an outlet, so it can do infinite compressions. It’s always the right depth; it's always going the right speed. It's really an awesome piece of equipment,” Kyle said. This newest addition to the Tofield station is unique to many ambulance units, as Alberta Health Services does not have any LUCAS devices. “Not a lot of ambulance services actually carry these. AHS doesn't at all, it's only municipal, private services. Some of the fire services, like Strathcona, I think Medavie, which is up by Two Hills, St. Paul, they're starting to get
BEMS recently purchased another LUCAS 3 CPR device for the Tofield station with funds received from the now-dissolved Beaver County Victim Services Unit. L-R: Dale Bayliss, paramedic, Aleisha Wagar, Primary Care Paramedic (PCP), BEMS Operations Manager Alex Kyle, Lee Nealon, PCP. KARI JANZEN PHOTO them rolled out. Even some hospitals are starting to carry them, because even though there could be 30 staff on board, the LUCAS will still do better compressions than switching out every two minutes,” Kyle said. To use the LUCAS, a back plate slides underneath the patient and the machine is positioned correctly overtop and
clips to the plate. The paramedic turns the LUCAS on, pulls the suction cup down to the chest, and presses another button to start the compressions. “If a patient is in a shockable rhythm and we had somebody physically doing chest compressions, they would have to stop and then you would defibrillate them, but with the
LUCAS, you can have it doing the compressions and defibrillate the patient at the same time,” Kyle said. All of the Beaver EMS frontline units have a LUCAS, whether that be a LUCAS 2 or 3. “We have two frontline units here in Tofield and one in Viking, and this is the second LUCAS 3 that we have,” Kyle said. The last president of
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Beaver County Victim Services, Jim Warren, said he is glad to see that the funds donated are being put to good use. “With the limited amount of resources in a small town, this will do the job of a person, and they'll do it more efficiently. If you're just one ambulance with two paramedics on it, this is essentially your backup person,” Kyle said.
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