Essex-Windsor EMS wants to make sure whether you're holding a wedding or a sports tournament, you have what you need to help save someone experiencing a cardiac event.
The region's paramedic service is now making automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, available for free for any big event, especially those outdoors, such as a wedding, a sports tournament, a golf tournament, or even a big gathering of people like a family reunion.
An AED is a portable electronic device that can restart the heart of a person-of any age-who experiences cardiac arrest. The device monitors the patient's heartbeat and, if necessary, can deliver one or more heart-resuscitating electric shocks.
Dave Thibodeau with Essex-Windsor EMS says minutes matter when someone suffers cardiac arrest.
"If you apply a defibrillator to someone's chest in the first 60 seconds of a cardiac arrest, their chances of surviving increase by 90 per cent," he says.
Thibodeau says this program is important because they don't know when or where a cardiac arrest will occur.
"The ambulance's best response time on a good day is seven to eight minutes. With every minute that passes when someone suffers a cardiac arrest, their chances of surviving decrease by 10 per cent with every minute. So when the ambulance rolls up at the eight-minute mark, their chances are less than 10 or 20 per cent of surviving," he says.
EWEMS' loaner AEDs are stored in backpacks for maximum portability, and each backpack is equipped with emergency-use instructions, a naloxone kit (nasally administered spray to temporarily reverse the effects of a potential opioid overdose) and various first-aid items needed, such as a tourniquet to stop bleeding.
Essex-Windsor EMS loans out up to four AED backpacks per approved event to any group that qualifies after having completed an application at least five business days in advance of the event.
One condition of approval is there must be at least one person on site where the AEDs would be used who possesses current first aid and/or CPR training.
Thibodeau says they want people who take out the device to be comfortable using it.
"If they have a standard first aid certificate that's current, that's wonderful. We'll give them a brief tutorial on the device itself so they're familiar with our device when they borrow it. If they don't have standard first aid or CPR training, we'd be happy to sit down with them and do a one- or two-hour session to get them familiar with how to use the device," he says.
Click here to find more information on the program.,