GLENDALE : City OKs $77,000 for Paramedic Gear

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved spending up to $77,000 on fire-paramedic equipment considered to have had some success in saving cardiac-arrest victims.

Glendale fire officials will negotiate with Laerdal Medical Corp. to purchase 12 sets of equipment, also called defibrillators, which send electricity to a heart to revive it.

Fire Chief Richard Hinz told council members Tuesday to bypass a competitive bidding process because Laerdal, based in Armonk, N. Y., is the only company that makes the 1-foot-by-6-inch machines.

Other manufacturers “bring together components made by other firms,” Hinz said.

Glendale firefighters normally don’t use machines during a cardiac-arrest response. Instead, they perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim in hopes of reviving heartbeat, said Battalion Chief Dave Starr.

They then must wait for paramedics, who are equipped with the defibrillator devices, Starr said.

Currently, 14 fire departments in the county use defibrillators from Laerdal, said Carol Gunter, an emergency services official with the Los Angeles County Department of Health.

The devices have shown an 18% success rate in 1992, compared to a 15% rate in 1991, Gunter said.

“The American Heart Assn. strongly feels that this increases the save rate of patients,” she said. “Having the firefighter start this before paramedics get there can definitely save lives.”

Starr said he expects the equipment to be installed in the department’s 12 firetrucks by early January.