OMAHA—A volunteer fire department said it's gotten its hands on a new tool that will improve how its crews take care of patients on the way to the emergency room.
It's called Point of Care Ultrasound, and Valley Fire and Rescue said it bought two of the probes, which it said it began using on rescues last year.
"It's a relatively new technology for the pre-hospital environment," Rescue Capt. Emma Zeratsky said. "There are a very, very small number of critical care, flight and hospital-based services primarily using it."
VFR said it's the only volunteer fire department in the country using the gadget, and that it helps identify internal bleeding, seeing the heart, and IV insertion, so patients can get the care they need faster.
One of its cases involved a pregnant woman. Normally in that situation, it wouldn't have anything to monitor the fetus.
"On that day, I had ultrasound, " Zeratsky said. "I was able to assess the fetus, see everything was going well, and then show that to that mother and give her that reassurance that we didn't see any immediate threats."
In another case involving a man in a motorcycle accident, the patient seemed like he was suffering from a punctured lung.
"Usually, our treatment modality for that is inserting an needle into the chest to then let the air out, let the lung re-inflate," Rescue Lt. Chris Pritza said.
However, responders didn't have to do such an invasive procedure. They used the ultrasound to scan the patient's chest and abdomen and found no punctured lung, allowing them to move on to other possible causes while transporting him to the medical center.
They said such a thing can increase a patient's chance for survival.
"Using the ultrasound in this case, we were able to mitigate all those risks completely and get our patient there in the best state we possibly could," Pritza said.
In essence, it's a game changer.
Valley firefighters said several departments have contacted them about how implementing the device could possibly work for them, as well as the training and protocols for its use.