GODFREY- The Godfrey Fire Department is the first in the State of Illinois to purchase the ZOLL ResQCPR System, which promises a survival rate increase of 49 percent for recipients of CPR. 

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The device revolutionizes the CPR process by providing not only the push of manual CPR, but also the pull of an additional pump. It was a process conceived by a Keith Lurie in 1981 after witnessing a man saved from the brink of death through CPR utilizing a common toilet plunger. Lurie figured the plunger added an additional pump to the process, which created a sort of chest vacuum effect when utilized. The ZOLL ResQCPR System also utilizes a valve to regulate pressure and alert firefighters to the proper amount of ventilation required by the CPR recipient. 

"Sometimes the amount of compression causes people to hyperventilate, which doesn't help," Godfrey Fire Chief Erik Kambarian said. 

To prevent hyperventilation, the valve has a small light, which alerts every six seconds to insure proper techniques are being used. The kit comes with a silicon pump and two valve pods for the price of $1,300. Kambarian said there will be one in each station, and hopes to add more in the future. 

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Godfrey Firefighters John Farmer and Ben Hamberg demonstrate the new device on a training dummy

"When I found out there was something that has been clinically proven to save lives, I thought we had to get it," he said. "We had a few regulatory and financial hurdles to go through, but I wanted to find a way to fund it when we heard about it a year ago." 

ZOLL Clinical Educator Mark Thurow said the system has been in use in Europe for a few years, and is used almost ubiquitously throughout Oklahoma. Other states, including Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio, among others have used it as well. Thurow said Godfrey was the first fire department in the state to utilize it, which required some regulatory challenges before it could be put into use. 

"What it does is take CPR to the next level," Thurow said. "It pushes blood forward with this, adding negative pressure to each push and pull. It allows more blood to reach the heart and brain. People in this area should be excited and happy to know their chances of being up and around in a year just increased by nearly 50 percent." 

Despite the idea being conceived by creative use of a plunger during CPR, Thurow said the use of a plunger during traditional manual CPR was not advised by anyone. He said the circumstances, which allowed for the survival of the victim in that anecdote were not typical, and a special coming together of conditions allowed for the use of a plunger to work in that particular situation. 

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