MANCHESTER – You could say they are taking a page from the Nascar playbook because the Manchester Fire Department, joined by the Ambulance Service of Manchester takes a bit of a left turn when it comes to their C-P-R training.
Officially, Battalion Chief Josh Beaulieu, calls it the “Pit Crew Model for Cardiac Arrest Management”, but in life-saving circles it’s known simply as “Pit Crew CPR”. Much like how a racing crew feverishly tends to a car in the pits, so do Manchester Firefighters when it comes to responding to a cardiac arrest patient.
“Everybody has a role,” Beaulieu said. “Those roles might be compressions, it might be the person assigned to deal with the family, it might be the person managing the airway and breathing for the patient.”
Chief Beaulieu, a 21 year vet of the department, added that the town of Manchester has been supportive in providing resources when responding to cardiac arrest calls – as many as ten first responders can answer a life-saving call. He said, “a cardiac arrest requires a lot of work and a lot of hands to save someone’s life and that’s exactly what we are doing.”