After advocating for new medical bags for years, the Duluth Fire Department has secured them.

All ten rigs have been given two new medical bags each.

“It was something that we had put in the budget years ago and it finally came through,” Captain Lisa Consie said.

The new bags are bigger, brighter and more organized than the old bags. One is red and contains supplies for trauma response, while the other is blue and contains supplies for airway response.

“Our bags get a lot of use,” Consie said. “We carry them in the woods, we bring them into houses, they sit on the street when we do car accidents, so there’s a lot of wear and tear. We are very excited about the new bags!"

The new bags can also be worn as a backpack, rather than carried as a satchel, which could help firefighters respond to emergencies quicker.

“It’s easy if we are hiking down a trail somewhere, or going for a rescue in the woods,” Consie said.

Another benefit of the bags is that they are water resistant, allowing them to withstand the elements of rain, snow and disinfectant, which will be especially helpful as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

“Our old bag was a fabric, so we couldn't clean and decontaminate it as much as we'd like to,” Consie said. “They now have a rubber coating on them—making them much easier for us to decontaminate them after calls.”

In addition to the new bags, firefighters got new AED’s. Consie said this is also a significant upgrade because the last time they got new ones was in 2012.

“These new AED's that we are actually a shorter analyzation time, so it reads the rhythm of a patient much faster than our old ones which means we can then apply a shock much quicker than before,” Consie said.

Firefighters have been trained on the new bags and will begin using them on Monday.

To read the original report and see related stories, follow this link to the WDIO-TV website.  https://www.wdio.com/duluth-minnesota-news/new-medical-bags-aim-to-help-duluth-fire-departments-emer...