Grosse Pointe Shores Public Safety Sgt. Jason Cook explains to the Shores City Council how the LUCAS device works during a medical emergency requiring CPR.
By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published May 27, 2025
GROSSE POINTE SHORES — The Grosse Pointe Shores Public Safety Department has added a LUCAS to their ranks, but this isn’t a new hire.
LUCAS — which stands for Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System — is a machine that performs chest compressions on a person during CPR. While movies and TV shows make chest compressions look effortless, they’re actually exhausting and labor-intensive.
During a meeting March 18, the Shores City Council unanimously approved the purchase of a LUCAS device for the city’s ambulance at a cost of $22,840.20.
“We have the funding (available) now in the current budget” for the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year, Public Safety Director Kenneth Werenski told the council. “We’ve been frugal.”
At the same time, he added that he was exploring the possibility of acquiring a grant to subsidize the expense.
It’s a piece of equipment Werenski said will be in service for the next 15 to 20 years.
Sgt. Jason Cook, who demonstrated how the LUCAS device works for the council using a CPR dummy, said he’s been advocating for the Shores to obtain one of these for the last decade. He said the department typically does CPR on a patient for about 30 minutes on the scene, before transporting the patient to the hospital.
“We cannot transport until we get the patient stabilized,” Werenski said.
Werenski said this is “a piece of equipment we’re very excited about. It provides consistent, high-quality chest compressions.”
There are concerns for patients with regard to manual chest compressions performed by first responders.
“CPR degrades over time, especially with only three people on the scene,” Cook said.
Shores officers — who also provide emergency medical services in the city — need to administer medication and coordinate with the hospital as well. Because the department, like the city, is small, Cook said they only have a three-person team to respond to a medical emergency, not a standard, larger team of six first responders. That makes LUCAS all the more important.
“It’s designed to offer a second set of hands,” Cook said.
Werenski agreed.
“This piece of equipment we feel is like buying another man,” Werenski said. “Once this device starts, it doesn’t stop.”
Cook said LUCAS is “not new technology” and is used by many other emergency medical service providers, including Detroit EMS, police in Macomb County, and ambulances in St. Clair and Lapeer counties.
Werenski said the first LUCAS devices were produced around 2003. He said the Shores is getting the third-generation version of this equipment.
Cook said the new versions of this device — like the one the Shores is getting — can sense the age and size of the patient. He said these devices can be used on anyone ages 10 and up, and on people up to 350 pounds to 400 pounds.
A single LUCAS battery allows for 45 minutes of continuous operation, and the LUCAS the Shores got came with three batteries, Cook said.
Forty-five minutes is “longer than any one person can do CPR,” Cook said.
He said the device comes with a six to seven-year warranty, which includes annual updates and maintenance.
“We’re the only Grosse Pointe that still maintains our own EMTs (emergency medical technicians) and ambulance. If it saves one life, is it worth it?” Mayor Ted Kedzierski asked as a rhetorical question.
Werenski, like Kedzierski, feels the purchase is worth it.
“We want to save them all,” Werenski said. “Our guys want to save them all.”
Werenski said the department got the LUCAS CPR device circa early April. They’ve already used it, although sadly, the patient — a Shores resident — was alone when he suffered a heart attack and wasn’t discovered until a family member returned home and found him. Despite their best efforts, Shores officers were unable to save the resident.
City Councilwoman Sandra Cavataio thanked Werenski and others in the Public Safety Department “for bringing state-of-the-art technology to our citizens” with LUCAS.
Werenski said the LUCAS device will be a great addition to the Shores’ new ambulance. At press time, he said the city expects to receive the ambulance in February 2026.