Allen paramedics will soon carry new cardiac equipment after the City Council approved a set of purchases for the fire and police departments, the city announced Oct. 2.
The largest item is $903,472 for LIFEPAK monitors and defibrillators and their accessories. Paramedics use the units to check patients, watch heart rhythms and deliver treatment when someone's heart is in trouble. The city said the new units should arrive in the coming months.
Council also approved $164,326 for LUCAS systems, devices that keep up chest compressions automatically during CPR so crews can turn to other parts of a patient's care. Allen Fire already uses LUCAS devices, but the city described the current ones as older and well used, and the new purchase replaces them.
Practice before the real thing
A third fire purchase, $160,000, buys simulation software from Smoke Stack Studios for the department's incident command training. Allen Fire has run that program since 2009. Crews use it to work through a simulated emergency: sizing up conditions, assigning companies, lining up resources and making calls under a clock. Afterward they can go back over their choices and find what to do better.
"Our residents depend on us to have reliable equipment and to make sound decisions under pressure," Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said in the city's announcement. "These purchases support both. They replace equipment our paramedics use to care for patients and give our personnel opportunities to practice managing emergencies before lives are at stake."
