Carbon monoxide poisoning is responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other poison, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Often referred to as the "silent killer," the odorless gas can be difficult to detect and the symptoms of poisoning can be easily misdiagnosed as the flu.
New technology on Lawrence's ambulances should help catch carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning earlier and more often.
Video by: Tara Smith and Yelena Pavlik
Over the past week, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical has just equipped each of its first-response ambulances with pulse CO-oximeters, hand-held machines that could make a world of difference in the treatment of CO poisoning. They can measure CO levels in the blood on the scene of the emergency in a matter of seconds.
"We used to just evaluate people by their signs and symptoms if their CO detector went off, but now we're able to know for sure," Neil Taylor, Lawrence paramedic, said.
In the past, if emergency responders suspected CO poisoning, the victims had to go straight to the hospital to have blood drawn and tested as soon as possible after the exposure to the poison in order to get the most accurate measurement.
Now, paramedics can take the lightweight machine made by Masimo Corp. anywhere. They clip a sensor onto the patient's finger and it shines an infrared light through the nail, using light wavelengths to measure saturation levels of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood.
The Interscan Corp., a company that makes environmental gas detection instruments, reported that CO bound to the blood's hemoglobin 240 times more readily than did oxygen, meaning it takes the place of oxygen in the blood, which leads to the flu-like symptoms and headaches commonly associated with CO poisoning.
Tom Jones is an EMS training officer at the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department, which has had the pulse CO-oximeters in service for almost a full year.
"There used to be a very, very involved lab test at the hospital," Jones said. "Us being able to stick this thing on your finger is nothing short of a miracle for us."
If the hospital determined the CO levels to be severe, or beyond treatment with simple 100 percent oxygen, patients would have to be transported to a hospital with a hyperbaric chamber, such as the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.
James Zeeb, Chief of EMS Training for the KCKFD, said hyperbaric oxygenation therapy was the main treatment for severe CO poisoning, using "a tube that drives gases out of the body," similar to what divers use after long instances of breathing highly pressurized gases.
The first responders can now use the pulse CO-oximeters to cut out a step in the treatment process and significantly reduce the amount of time between treatment and diagnosis.
"If we know ahead of time, we can take them to a hospital that has a hyperbaric chamber to eliminate the middleman," Jones said.
Masimo's Rad-57 Pulse CO-oximeter is the only pre-hospital, non-invasive machine of its kind.
It debuted in October 2005, Pam Mullins, Masimo's Central EMS Regional Manager, said. She said normal pulse-oximeters, which measure only pulse and oxygen levels in the blood, have been around since the late 1970s.
Jones said the KCKFD used a normal smoker's level of carboxyhemoglobin, or eight percent, as their upper limit for safe levels.
Normal levels for a nonsmoker are around three percent, and Jones said that a nonsmoker with levels from five to nine percent would be treated immediately with 100 percent oxygen.
Anyone who reached 10 percent carboxyhemoglobin would be taken to the hospital for further treatment, with no doubt as to what was causing their illness.
"Knowing that it's an emergency we run often, especially in the winter, without having any way of knowing what's in the air, this is such an innovation that can help us do our job," Zeeb said. "It's a win-win situation."