Grant provides St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office with new lifesaving device

DULUTH, Minn.– St. Louis County first responders will now be better equipped to save lives, thanks to a grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the University of Minnesota Center for Resuscitative Medicine, and Stryker.

The Lucas 3 machine is an automated chest compression device.

The lifesaving device allows law enforcement to focus on other tasks, while the patient receives CPR.

Lucas 3 will work alongside 65 AED devices distributed around the county.

In addition to helping out with emergencies, there is also research tied to this opportunity as well.

“On the side of the device there’s a QR code after each usage, the device itself will send out the data that will come to us. Also, there is an evaluation form for the officer to fill out that was involved that has extra information that the device won’t capture. So that we can do that wasn’t AED used. Was it transports the patient, transported that kind of thing. Build that whole story of what we’re seeing from AED usage in the LUCAS device, “explained Loren Kollmar, Information Technology, University of Minnesota.

The future looks bright for the rural St louis County.

One of the sergeants told FOX 21 for the past three years AED devices have been here, there have been 3 confirmed saves.

And the Lucas 3, is just another tool towards success.

“We’ve got the Boundary Waters, and we’ve got basically Duluth all the way up to Canada. And so sometimes it takes EMS a very long time to get wherever it is that we are. Because of how huge the county is, there are times where we’re moving patients long distances to get them to an ambulance.  And this will allow chest compressions throughout the entire transport,” said Sergeant Jessica LaBore, St Louis County Sheriff’s Office.

The Lucas 3 will be rotated among Ely, Cook, Duluth, and other remote sites, with the location changing every four days.