New, everyday life-saving devices are now in the field for Sequim first responders.
Crews with Clallam County Fire District 3 and Olympic Ambulance trained for three days, March 1-3, at the district’s Carlsborg classrooms on new LIFEPAK-15 devices, cardiac monitors/defibrillators.
Eight of the devices went into active rotation on ambulances and fire engines the afternoon of March 3, according to Capt. Kolby Konopaski.
“(Staff) is really excited,” he said. “It’s the latest and greatest.”
Once attached to a patient, the device can tell paramedics where a cardiac event is happening, and it can forward the information to a hospital during transport.
In a previous interview, paramedics said they transport patients for cardiac care as many as three times a week to St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton.
With the information at the hospital, Konopaski said “a doctor can give the order to use medicine like a clot buster in the field,” adding, “It’s the last piece of the puzzle.”
The fire district traded in its nine older monitors to LIFEPAK’s maker Stryker Medical of Redmond for the new monitors with partial funding provided by the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild, Konopaski said.
The switch has been planned for about a year, he said, as “we’re doing this rather than replacing one machine at a time.”
The devices’ dials are easier to use and maneuver through the screen, he said, and it features carbon monoxide detection for patients and firefights on scene at structure fires.
Tom Winstel, a fire service representative for Stryker Medical, said they set up the new devices similarly to a new cell phone, such as the numbers for hospitals and medicinal information.
The LIFEPAK-15s are the same devices paramedics use in Clallam County Fire District 2 (Port Angeles area) and East Jefferson Fire Rescue, which Konopaski said will help with familiarity during mutual aid calls.
Olympic Ambulance’s crews were trained on the devices, he said, because they’re often asked to assist fire district personnel on scene with patient diagnostics using fire district equipment.
During training, paramedics also tried a Lucas 3, a chest compression device, that Konopaski said they’re considering purchasing in the future to update their autopulse devices and save space on vehicles.
The district is paying off the eight LIFEPAKs over five years, Konopaski said, with half the first year funded by the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild, which raises funds for the district at its Thrift Shop, 204 W. Bell St.
The all-volunteer guild has given more than $2.3 million to community service groups with its shop open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday on the first and third week of each month. For more information, call 360-683-7044.
Click here for more information on Stryker Medical.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Clallam County Fire District 3 recently upgraded its cardiac monitors/defibrillators to LIFEPAK-15 devices on its ambulances and fire engines that Capt. Kolby Konopaski said are “the latest and greatest.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Capt. Neil Borggard and firefighter/paramedic John Riley use the Lucas 3 chest compression device after a training day on March 2. Capt. Kolby Konopaski said Clallam County Fire District 3 is considering purchasing the device in the future to update their autopulse devices and save space on vehicles.
