TUCSON, Ariz. — A new method to treating cardiac patients with the Tucson Fire Department is hoping to help save more lives.
In most situations, firefighters have been trained to do compression on a cardiac patient as they're getting them to the hospital as quickly as possible.
TFD is now training their firefighters to stay on the scene and treat patients until they're ready to be moved.
"Anything that can be done at the hospital that can save that person's life we can do on scene," Battalion Chief Barrett Baker said. "By waiting those additional five, ten minutes on scene, we're giving that person the best chance to live."
Baker said firefighters have been doing this training for the past couple months.
It is a new training they learned through critics they've been given at the hospital. Through every call, firefighters are constantly learning new ways to better the way they handle different situations.
"Every cardiac arrest that we go to is looked at by doctors right, and we critic ourselves because ultimately that's the whole point of being here, to save lives," Baker said. "If there are things we can do better for one person, we're going to try to do that moving forward."
They've already started using the training and have been seeing positive results.
