A new innovation in the medical industry has helped to save someone’s life after a sudden cardiac arrest.

BodyChillz who specialises in designing and developing new medical technologies that provides cooling to the body has reported using their new medical device CAERvest, for the first time with brilliant results.

CAERvest is a new core temperature cooling medical vest, which helps to reduce the temperature of a patient who has suffered from either a cardiac arrest or heat stroke.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) kills more people globally every year than lung cancer, breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined.

In a recent medical emergency, the CAERvest was put into action with a patient’s temperature being reduced considerably in the critical journey from the scene to the hospital, all thanks to this new technology.

The device was initially developed to reduce the core temperature to a rate of at least 1°C in the first hour, yet in this particular case the life saving vest cooled the patient by 1.6°C in 22 minutes, helping to stabilise them and reduce further medical injury.

The chemically powered medical device is ideal for paramedics and other first responders as it is both lightweight, easy to use and can also be used alongside a defibrillator and will not interfere with manual CPR, which might be required to be practiced throughout the journey to hospital. The vest can be used on adult patients and pregnant women and can be activated in under a minute.

Once anchored to the patient, the vest will remain attached and secure whilst transporting the patient to hospital. The movement of the victim will also help stimulate the vest to cool further.

This video demonstration highlights how quick and easy it is to fit the vest to a patient:

 

CAERvest is a medical breakthrough and can help to immediately induce rapid, early therapeutic hypothermia in cardiac arrest patients, in order to reduce tissue damage following a loss of blood perfusion after cardiac arrest, especially in the brain, which is highly sensitive to hypoxia. Any further neurological injury can be significantly reduced if used in time and correctly.

The vest is also used for core body cooling after potentially lethal heatstroke, septic episodes, drug-induced or other causes of an elevated temperature.

Openhouse currently supply medical covers for CAERvest which help keep the device clean, safely stored and easy to transport.