MPD will begin training to use 271 Automated External Defibrillators on medical calls
The Montgomery Police Department is getting new devices that will help save the lives of people having heart attacks. When a person goes into cardiac arrest, you only have between 3 to 5 minutes to start CPR before brain damage occurs. Many times, police officers arrive before the paramedics when someone calls 911, and now they will be able to use those critical moments to start treatment.
The Montgomery Police Department will now lead the state with the largest automated external defibrillator deployment among Alabama law enforcement agencies. The AED’s will be in the officers’ patrol cars, so that when they respond to a medical call and someone is having a heart attack, they can use the AED to start defibrillation until paramedics arrive.
The City of Montgomery has purchased 271 AED’s that MPD will be using, and over the next few weeks and months, police officers will be trained by current and former medics and firefighters on how to operate them. The company Cardiac Solutions will oversee every aspect of the AED program, including product provision and continuous daily monitoring. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Prattville Police Department are two of the law enforcement agencies here in Alabama that already keep AED’s in their patrol cars, and officials tell us that it is becoming more common.
“These devices are literally devices that will give us a potential and a capability to assist somebody if they are experiencing a cardiac incident that could be threatening to their health and welfare. So this gives us the potential to start assisting them very quickly when time and seconds matter,” said Interim Chief of Police Jim Graboys.
“Now patrol officers in the city of Montgomery are going to be able to arrive to those scenes to those individuals with AED to begin defibrillation and CPR. When you do that early, that allows EMS to show up to someone who has a much better chance of surviving and to get them to the right place and to the hospital,” said Cardiac Solutions’ Director of Sales Ben Yother.
According to the American Heart Association, every year more than 356,000 people have out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, and nearly 90% of them are fatal. MPD is hoping this new program will be one small step towards reducing that number. AED’s can cost between $1,200 to $4,000 dollars each. To learn more go to www.cardiac-solutions.net
