Scripps Mercy Only San Diego Hospital Using Hands-Free CPR Device

SAN DIEGO – Scripps Mercy Hospital recently purchased AutoPulse™, a highly-effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) device that increases normal blood flow during sudden cardiac arrest.

AutoPulse™, an automated, portable device, uses a backboard and self-adjusting band that fastens across the patient’s chest. The device compresses the entire chest in a consistent hands-free manner, moving much more blood than manual CPR. In addition, it frees rescuers to focus on other life-saving tasks.

“Time is heart muscle,” says Davis Cracroft, M.D., emergency medicine physician and medical director of Scripps Mercy Hospital. “Efficient, consistent chest compressions are essential when responding to a patient experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. AutoPulse offers us a very fast way of doing just that.”

Sudden cardiac arrest is an abrupt disruption of the heart’s function that causes a lack of blood flow to vital organs resulting in the loss of blood pressure, pulse and consciousness. Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of unexpected death in the world, claiming 95 percent of victims.

Even when done properly, the best manual chest compressions provide only 30 to 40 percent of normal blood flow from the brain, and only 10 to 20 percent to the heart. Even the most seasoned clinicians and EMS professionals admit maintaining the proper rate and depth of compressions can be difficult for long periods of time.

_Established in 1890 by the Sisters of Mercy, Scripps Mercy Hospital serves the San Diego and Chula Vista communities. With 700 licensed beds, more than 3,000 employees and 1,300 physicians, Scripps Mercy Hospital is San Diego’s longest established and only Catholic medical center. With two campuses, Scripps Mercy Hospital is the largest hospital in San Diego County and one of the 10 largest in California. _