MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Meridian Township Fire Department continues to utilize new technology in rescue situations. The Lucas Chest Compression is an automatic CPR compression machine.

According to the American Heart Association the overall survival rate of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is currently 12 percent.

Manual chest compressions can sometimes become risky if they are not done at a consistent rate or depth, the Lucas Chest Compression Machine takes that over.

“The American Heart Standard is to change humans out every two minutes well if you're doing that then you need two or three people just to do compressions where this machine takes care of that so we don't have to worry about people bouncing around in the back of the ambulance, this will be consistent for us,” said Bill Priese, EMS Training Chief.

A study that was done in Sep 2013 in Redmond, Washington compared the effectiveness of lucas mechanical compressions against high quality manual compressions.

According to the LINC after 6 months patients who received lucas chest compressions had better neurological outcomes, vs the patients who received manual compressions.