INSIDE

Fire department poised to fix defibrilator problem

By Meg Olson

The local fire department may be facing a hefty bill to replace or reprogram all the district’s defibrillators following the adoption of new cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rules by the American Heart Association.

“If we’re in a home and they see us ignoring the voice prompt from the AED (automated external defibrillator) for customer care it doesn’t look very good,” said fire chief Bill Skinner at the March 8 meeting of fire district commissioners.

The old guidelines recommend three shocks with approximately 30 seconds in between them to try to return the patient to a normal heart rhythm before the rescuer starts chest compressions to artificially move blood around the body. New guidelines put greater emphasis on chest compressions and only one shock is recommended before beginning CPR.

The catch is all AEDs will need to be reprogrammed or replaced, which could cost the fire department up to $30,000. “It’s unknown if they’ll be able to be reprogrammed,” Skinner said. “They’re old and multi-phasic.”

Skinner said the district had $430,000 in investments and reserves and had not received the year’s tax revenues yet. Last year the department ran over $50,000 under budget, and commissioners approved moving those funds into reserves. “We’re in good shape,” he said.

Before the district can pay to get new AED units, they have to be available programmed to the new standards. Skinner said that the industry had not made them available yet, but Whatcom County medical program director Marvin Wayne had directed county care providers to follow the new procedures as of January 16, 2006.

“No one has an AED with the new protocols so they’re either just turning them off after the first shock or ignoring the directive until everyone knows what they’re doing,” Skinner said. “We’ve decided to ignore Dr. Wayne’s directive at this time and we’re not in isolation. We’ll start next month with training and teaching everyone the new protocols.” Skinner said he would see if he could get the more expensive 12-lead modified and get prices to replace smaller units, which he anticipates will have the new protocols in place by July. “In the meantime we’ll have to improvise a little bit,” Skinner said.

Community AED units that were obtained through grants and now are placed in community locations like the community center and Lighthouse Park will need to be upgraded by the agencies that received the units. “They’re newer units so they’re all reprogrammable,” Skinner said.