By EMS1 Staff
MURRAY, Ky. — The Murray-Calloway County Ambulance Service received a $10,000 state grant to buy and equip their ambulances with CPR machines.
The Kentucky Board of EMS in cooperation with the Calloway County Fiscal Court awarded MCCAS the grant, according to Murray Ledger & Times. Officials also applied for the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security grant to enable the EMS agency to equip all the ambulances with CPR machines.
“Thanks to (Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny) Imes and the fiscal court, we have also applied for a Kentucky Office of Homeland Security grant of $29,400,” Murray-Calloway County Ambulance Service Director Marty Barnett said. “If we can get that money, then all of our ambulances will be equipped with mechanical CPR machines, and one of the great things about that is this provides a first line of defense for us with cardiac cases.”
Barnett expects the Homeland Security grant to come through in September. The $29,400 award will go towards equipping all five of its units with a CPR machine.
Barnett explained that this life-saving machine is needed because the number of patients the ambulance service has been treating has jumped 9% in the last year.