New device implemented at Anchorage Middletown Fire to improve CPR training

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A new training tool has been implemented to help Anchorage Middletown Fire and EMS learn CPR training.

The tool is called EleGARD, and helps elevate a patient’s head for more effective CPR.

Approximately 700,000 people suffer from sudden cardiac arrest every year in the United States.

This new device gives first responders a neuroprotective method that can raise the success rate of saving lives.

Only 10.8% of people survive cardiac arrest when it happens outside a hospital, and only 24% of people survive when it occurs inside a hospital.

“It improves our ability to replicate normal body function and improves the effectiveness of CPR, allows us to get more blood to the tissues, and gives the heart and the brain a better chance to come back to normal function and save a life,” Clinical Education Specialist Kurt Bramer said. “And ultimately, our goal is to not just get somebody’s heart started, but we want them to have a high quality of life, so we want to protect the brain during that process and that’s what this device does.”