LAKE HARMONY, Pa. — The Lake Harmony Rescue Squad is a basic life support ambulance that serves Kidder Township and the Lake Harmony area.
But its equipment is anything but basic.
For the past six months, the ambulance has used a portable EKG machine known as the Lifepack15 on nearly all of its calls.
"It's used to diagnose heart attacks, heart rhythms, irregular heart rhythms. As far as I know, we're the only ones in the area that have it on a BLS truck," said Lake Harmony Rescue Chief Scott Wuttke.
Wuttke says once the patient is hooked up to the machine, it will read all the information about their heart. Through the technology, results will automatically be sent to a doctor at one of the hospitals they work with.
Wuttke says another piece of equipment that's more common on ambulances is an automated CPR machine known as the Lucas device. He says the first time the squad used the device, it saved a life.
"If we would have had to do manual CPR, it was on the beach. You're looking at exhaustion from the provider doing CPR, and it ties up a set of hands. So, the machine will free up the hands, and it does perfect CPR," Wuttke said.
The Lake Harmony Rescue Squad serves a rural area, so these newer pieces of lifesaving equipment free up EMTs' hands to help the patient and also save time when it matters the most.
"We're not touching the patient as much as we used to. We're able to send it off to the doctor to diagnose a stemmy, which time is a muscle, so if we can get a hospital; destination hospital quicker or we have to change the destination, we can get to a heart hospital quicker," said Wuttke.
The Lucas device and Lifepack15 machine are not standard on basic life support ambulances, but the Lake Harmony Rescue Squad has both devices on one of its ambulances and plans to have them on a second ambulance by this summer.