New CPR Machine Helps Paramedics Save Patients' Lives
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MCKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) - The City of McKinney has new machines that will be carried on all ambulances and fire trucks that can actually perform CPR without a human involved.
It allows paramedics to do other life saving measures while the machine does CPR.
For families with elderly relatives like Laura Cloidt, keeping them healthy is a daily worry.
"You're always worried it can happen," says McKinney resident Laura Cloidt about her grandmother. "We were just at the doctor with her."
Cloidt's grandmother may one day benefit from this new machine.
It's a machine that performs C-P-R.
"I believe it is going to save lives in McKinney," says McKinney Firefighter Brian Roether.
Heart attack patients could receive consistent, uninterrupted chest compressions.
This machine has revived victims even an hour after it starts, when human hands would have given up.
McKinney just bought six, one for each ambulance, and paramedics showed CBS 11 how it worked
Traditional CPR can be less accurate and ties up paramedics who could be other lifesaving maneuvers.
"It's going to help our firefighters work more efficiently in the back of the ambulance," says Fire Battalion Chief Don McKinney.
The devices are also being used by Plano's Fire Department, which it says saved a 60-year-old's man's life as recently as Tuesday.
State health officials say heart disease causes one in five deaths in Collin County and CPR improves the survival rate from heart attacks by up to 15 percent.
Those numbers could improve with this new technology that brings peace of mind to heart patients and their families.
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