County Issues Resuscitators to Avoid Infection : Firefighters Receive Special Masks

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has begun to issue manual mask resuscitators to firefighters so that they can avoid mouth-to-mouth contact with accident victims who may have AIDS or other communicable diseases, officials said Wednesday.

The decision to purchase 1,500 of the $10 masks followed a May 19 incident in which a county fireman gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a suspected AIDS victim whose car had plunged over a Topanga Canyon Boulevard cliff.

Capt. Al Bennett said the department will finish distributing the lightweight “mouth-to-mask” resuscitators next week.

Several major fire departments across the United States have purchased the masks to ease firefighters’ concerns about treating victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Hepatitis B and other contagious diseases.

Air Blown Through Tube

When using the resuscitator, the rescuer blows air through a tube that leads to a mask covering the victim’s face. Fire officials say the masks are as medically effective as artificial respiration.

Each fire engine and paramedic unit will be equipped with two mask resuscitators; other department vehicles will have one each. Bennett said that five or six of the masks should be available at an accident scene, in addition to mechanical and “bag mask” resuscitators, in which a rescuer forces air into a victim’s lungs by pumping an air bag connected to a facial mask.

Fire personnel will use the masks only if the more effective mechanical and bag mask resuscitators are not available. But, if the equipment is not available, fire officials maintain that mouth-to-mouth breathing will not be withheld.

In the May 19 incident, a county fire crew rappeled over the steep canyon side without resuscitation equipment. One rescuer immediately began artificial respiration.

“We don’t want to get caught short with our firefighters going in with just a first-aid box and no resuscitation equipment,” Bennett said. “It won’t happen again.”

After the Topanga Canyon crash, the Los Angeles City Fire Department rejected a plan to purchase similar masks. The masks were not purchased because mechanical resuscitators can be more easily carried into urban areas served by city firefighters than into treacherous canyon areas served by county firefighters, according to Dr. Gregory Palmer, the city department’s medical director.