CAIRO — Greene County Paramedics became one of the first agencies in the region to have ventilators.

Mark Evans, president of Greene County Paramedics, said the paramedics are the first of six surrounding counties to have the devices in their trucks.

“It’s a game changer for paramedics in the field,” Evans said.

Transport ventilators help save the lives of patients with difficulty breathing and assist paramedics during rapid-sequence intubations. The ventilators allow paramedics to measure oxygen levels in a patient’s lungs and they provide medical information to paramedics about other potential conditions in which patients.

“We often have hospitals ask us what hospital the patient is coming from because they’re hooked up to the ventilator,” Evans said.

Columbia Memorial Health donated its unused ventilators in 2023 to the Greene County Paramedics but they were outdated and the paramedics needed approval and training, Evans said.

“We went to our medical director and our regional director for permission to have the ventilators and they said ‘yes’ with training,” Evans said. “The devices were outdated so we reached out to Royal Health Network and explained the situation and they agreed to give us $10,000 to update the devices and for proper training.”

The donated devices were placed on three of the five trucks in the county and were used extensively, Evans added.

In 2024, the paramedics budgeted for three additional, new transport ventilators, which are the same ones used on LifeNet helicopters.

The devices, $16,000 each, are being leased for five years, Evans added.

In the beginning of April, Greene County Paramedics were trained on the use the devices.

“The new devices have been used more than a dozen times,” he said. “They’re helping save lives.”

Ventilators, Evans said, are just another high-tech tool all paramedics should be using.

“I think they will be used in all facilities in the future,” he said. “We try to always stay on the forefront and, in fact, that’s what we are contracted to do. When we stay on the forefront, we are able to react quicker. When protocols change or when new medications come out, we try to get our medics trained. This is just another way.”

The paramedics have also started carrying the blood-clotting medication Tranexamic acid, or TXA.

“Medics have been able to help victims of car accidents or patients who are suffering from internal bleeding by giving this medication and we are seeing really good results,” he said.

Although not approved yet, Evans said, carrying blood supplies on trucks is on track to being approved.