The Otago Rescue Helicopter Trust recently bought a $30,000 German Corpuls mechanical CPR machine, which delivers "high quality, consistent chest compressions".
It is connected to one of the portable intensive care units it acquired last year.
Intensive care paramedic Doug Flett said the equipment was the best of its kind.
"If we go to the roadside and the patient has a traumatic brain injury, we have the ability to put them to sleep and put them on the ventilator at the scene."
The CPR machine allowed paramedics to have their hands free for other necessary jobs when treating patients.
While there were other mechanical CPR devices in the country, it was the first of this brand in use in New Zealand.
It was "top of the line", he said.
The CPR machine and one of the intensive care units cost $130,000 and was funded by the Otago Motor Club Trust, which supports road safety and motoring causes.
Trust member Mark Laughton said helping paramedics save lives in road accidents was "such a good cause".
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Comments
As said in the article - it was NOT the first in NZ and being the first of a brand is a dumb statement. The brand is irrelevant. Wellington Free Ambulance were using these devices in the late 1960s. No other ambulance service ever followed their lead. Not many services in the world use them.