Lodi Fire Department's new advanced life support proving to save lives
The Lodi Fire Department has taken major strides to help bring advanced life support services to the community, something not seen in the city since the 1970s.
"When we first went [advanced life support], I felt like every single day I came to work, we had a cardiac arrest for the first two, maybe three months," Lodi Fire Department Paramedic Engineer Dylan Cahue said.
Cahue is one of the eight paramedics at the Lodi Fire Department. Over the past six months, he's seen firsthand how essential advanced life support has become to the city.
"Once we got on scene, we found out the patient was a more critical patient than what the 911 dispatcher perceived it to be based off the information they were given," Cahue explained. "I was able to take over care for that patient and go on the ambulance with our equipment, and basically run the call from when we got there all the way to the hospital. Normally, we would have had to wait for an ambulance, possibly from Stockton, from Mantica because it was a busy time."
It's one of the dozens of examples where these new services have made an impact.
"We've already responded to 36 cardiac arrests, where 15 of those we had very positive outcomes," Lodi Fire Chief Ken Johnson said.
Before this, Lodi Fire was only able to provide basic life support, which included basic EMS, CPR and other life-saving measures before heading to the emergency room.
Now with advanced life support, these new services can send the patient's medical status to the hospital immediately and allow crews to respond to these calls much faster.
"There are times where there aren't as many ambulances in the system to provide that care," Johnson explained. "Having a critical care paramedic in your home within the first four minutes of you calling 911 is critical."
Bringing critical care, no matter the day or the hour, from a fire station only minutes from your home.
"Being able to expand our capabilities, and my capabilities on the medical call front, it was super cool to be able to just do all the extra things that normally I would have to sit there and watch another paramedic do or wait for them to do," Cahue shared.
"Our fire engine is probably closer to where you are than an ambulance is," Johnson explained. "In decreasing the time for you to receive Advanced Life Support is critical to us."
Their work isn't done. Lodi Fire is still in the process of providing these 24/7 services from all fire stations within the city.