A fire apparatus with a heart-lung bypass machine in it will soon be in service with the Edina (MN) Fire Department, in conjunction with the University of Minnesota, according to a report published by the Sun Current.
The unique truck will specialize in treating cardiac arrests and will be equipped with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO, to create a heart-lung bypass providing time to find the root cause of the arrest, according to the report. Earlier this month the Edina City Council agreed to the university/fire department partnership, the paper reported. The program received funding through the Minnesota Mobile Resuscitation Consortium, the paper reported.
The truck will have an ECMO machine, a c-arm fluoroscopy imaging scanner and cameras broadcasting several angles of the patient to a large television screen and technology to allow a cardiologist to be on call through virtual reality, the paper reported.
Two Edina firefighter-paramedics will staff the truck, which will be houses at a fire station, with two or three experts as well, the paper reported, adding that the firefighters will be trained on the truck and the ECMO equipment over the next few months with the goal of having it in service by the end of the year.