Helmsley Charitable Trust Grants $4.7m to Fund Life-Saving Technology to Confront Cardiac Threat from COVID-19
In April, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced a multimillion-dollar effort to save the lives of COVID-19 patients and to protect the frontline healthcare workers caring for them. The grant funded the purchase of 11 LUCAS mechanical chest compression devices for CHI St. Alexius Health located in Bismarck, Garrison, Turtle Lake, Carrington, Dickinson, and Williston.
A total of $4,711,481 in funding will be distributed across five upper-midwestern states to pay for 367 LUCAS mechanical CPR devices to be deployed to hospitals caring for patients during the pandemic and beyond.
“These devices are vital because we don’t want frontline healthcare workers to choose between trying to save a patient or risking exposure to themselves and others to the Coronavirus,” said Walter Panzirer, a trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “LUCAS has been a proven, effective tool in saving lives during cardiac arrest, and having more of them available during this pandemic will save even more lives, including those of the doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.”