Murrieta paramedics say a recent $100,000 outlay for heart-start equipment and training is expected to boost survival rates of stricken city residents.

The Zoll Auto Pulse units, which have been in use since May, have added to the arsenal of life-saving gear at the fingerprints of paramedics assigned to fire engines stationed throughout the city, officials said.

"I’m three-for-three in getting pulses back," paramedic Rob Godinho said during a demonstration provided to media representatives. "It’s new. It’s exciting. We’re seeing patients getting their pulse and blood pressure back. You can’t put a price tag on getting a life back."

The equipment had been used six times by Murrieta rescue crews prior to the June 19 demonstration at a fire station in the city’s northeast corner.

It’s not yet certain whether the units will help Murrieta patients survive heart attacks over the long-term. But paramedics agree the units seem to aid emergency resuscitation efforts while freeing them for an array of call-related duties.

"I’ve seen a lot more saves than I ever have before," said Godinho, a 16-year emergency medical provider.

There is one drawback, though, as each of the compression units and their plastic boards, pressure bands, straps and other equipment weigh about 25 pounds. That equipment is carried along on many emergency calls in case it is needed.

"It looks like a swap meet when we have one of those [heart] arrest calls, quipped Matt Corelli, a city paramedic and fire department spokesman. "The amount of equipment we have [on a call] is tremendous."

The units cost $14,000 each. One is assigned to each of the city’s five fire stations and a sixth is used as a back-up device.

Training expenses, maintenance of the units and the purchase of some replacement bands have boosted the total cost of the equipment to about $100,000, Corelli said.

The units are manufactured by a Massachusetts-based company that sells its products in more than 140 countries and was named after Paul Zoll, a professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School who helped pioneer electrical resuscitation devices.

The units, which operate on batteries, take just two minutes to set up. Their use is limited to adults and they are not effective on anyone who weighs more than 300 pounds.

Murrieta is believed to be the only city in western Riverside County to have purchased the equipment, which uses an electrical means to compress chest cavities rather than human hands via the traditional cardio-pulmonary resuscitation method.

Godinho, Corelli and other fire officials said the devices provide a larger and more uniform and constant pressure than human hands.

That increases the likelihood of resuscitation while reducing the rate of broken ribs, which periodically occur with manual resuscitation methods, they said.

And having a machine do the compressions – whether the patient is stationary or being moved – can free a paramedic or firefighter to administer medicines, help with breathing difficulties, begin the flow of intravenous fluids, talk to the person receiving aid and/or prepare them for transport to a hospital.

"You can imagine what the workload is like for all of us," Corelli said.

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