A mechanical device to aid cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) called a LUCAS (Lund University Cardiac Arrest System) has been donated by the Friends of Eastbourne Hospital.
The device is strapped across a patient’s chest following a cardiac arrest and mechanically provides consistent compressions leading to high quality CPR. Its advantage is that it takes away the physical requirement to manually provide chest compressions and frees up staff to assist in other interventions required during resuscitation. The device will be mainly used in the cardiac catheter lab but is available to be used across the hospital.
Steve Rochester, Senior Resuscitation Officer said: “On behalf of the resuscitation department I would like to thank the Friends of Eastbourne Hospital for their generosity in purchasing this device which will ultimately lead to less stressful resuscitations. This is the second such device we have at Eastbourne DGH. It provides effective and continuous CPR after a cardiac arrest freeing up staff to perform other interventions during resuscitation.”
Harry Walmsley, Chair of the Friends of Eastbourne Hospital said: “We are delighted to donate this device which will benefit those people requiring resuscitation. Our thanks go to the generosity of local people who through their donations to the Friends of Eastbourne Hospital have made this purchase possible.”