The kits cost $700, Hollins said, and the initial units were received through a state grant. "They are on all of our rescues, and all of our personnel are trained to use them." Michael Frantz, fire marshal and public information officer for North Port EMS, said his department has at least 10 of the kits. "They will be strategically located throughout the county," Treffinger said. In addition to battalion vehicles and in the vehicles of EMS captains, there will be kits in the special operations units. "We have new medical service protocols that are coming out, and when those protocols are released, probably in the next month or so, then we're going to roll out the CYANOKITs," he said. Ken Treffinger of Sarasota County EMS said Wednesday that his department has a number of CYANOKITs they are preparing to deploy. "This gives us another tool in our toolbox of medications," said Capt. The chemical turns the cyanide into Vitamin B12, which then is expelled through urination, Masengale said. To be effective, patients must get both bottles, said Gary Masengale, a paramedic with Manatee County EMS, based at the Cedar Hammock Fire Station No. The CYANOKIT has two bottles of hydroxocobalamin in powder form, and each bottle is liquefied in a saline solution and then given to the patient. Later, victims may suffer hypotension, coma, cardiac arrest and cardiovascular collapse.įrench firefighters in the Paris fire department found that using hydroxocobalamin intravenously on victims of smoke inhalation produced excellent results. Early symptoms of cyanide poisoning include headache, mental changes, chest tightness and pain, dilated pupils, and nausea and vomiting. Hollins said victims suffering from cyanide poisoning do not recover when given oxygen. Today, though, modern home furnishings are made from petroleum-based products like polyester, nylon and rayon, and when those items burn they release deadly hydrogen cyanide. Forty or 50 years ago, Hollins explained, smoke inhalation victims in structure fires breathed in fumes from natural materials like cotton and wood, and emergency personnel could revive victims of carbon monoxide poisoning with oxygen. The kits are needed because the nature of materials in modern buildings has changed. So far, none of the kits has been used on a fire victim. The kits are not hazardous to fire victims if it turns out they did not suffering from cyanide poisoning, according to Cedar Hammock Fire Battalion Chief Leigh Hollins.Ī fifth kit is on an ambulance in Longboat Key, he said. The new machines are called CYANOKITs, which allow emergency responders to deliver an intravenous treatment for cyanide poisoning, a deadly condition resulting from inhaling chemicals released in modern structure fires. Firefighters in Manatee County, and soon those across Sarasota County, will have new devices to help save the lives of fire victims who breathe in toxic chemicals common in modern house and building fires.įour ambulances within the Manatee County EMS have the new technology, and emergency vehicles in Sarasota County and North Port will add them soon.
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