LA County Fire Department equipping all paramedic units with CPR devices

LOS ANGELES - Funding from a federal grant and a local foundation will allow the Los Angeles County Fire Department to become the largest public safety agency in the country to have mechanical CPR devices on every paramedic unit, officials said Tuesday.

The funding comes from a $1.5 million grant through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and $240,000 from the Los Angeles County Fire Foundation.

"The LACoFD plans to receive and deploy the CPR devices by mid-2023," the LACoFD reported. "These additional CPR devices will supplement existing resources."

Emergency medical services calls are at an all-time high in the county, said LACoFD Medical Director Dr. Clayton Kazan.

"Currently, the LACoFD responds to more than 400,000 calls every year, of which more than 5,000 are cardiac arrest emergencies," Kazan said in a statement.

"The grant-funded devices will provide high-quality, life-sustaining CPR for patients that are suffering cardiac arrest," Kazan said. "With this advanced technology, CPR is mechanically regulated and uninterrupted for critical patients being transported to hospitals."

In 2018, the LACoFD started the Arrive Alive pilot program with only four LUCAS Chest Compression Systems, two donated from the City of West Hollywood and two through a grant from the County of Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission.

"Since then, with support from the Los Angeles County Fire Foundation and QPC, Arrive Alive has expanded to 27 devices," the LACoFD said. "This grant will enable the department to deploy mechanical CPR devices to all of the remaining paramedic units across the communities we serve."