Just wanted to mention a unique funding source that is available to police and emergency agencies.  Law Enforcement agencies have access to asset forfeiture funds from drug and civil seizures.  Medical devices can be purchased using this funding.   Over the past 2 years we have purchased 350 defibrillators and 17 autoPulse CPR devices utilizing this funding. 

We are now the first police department in the country using the autopulse device and now have a combined cardiac mitigation program with trained officers, AED's, Oxygen and autopulse devices. 

The Port Authority Police have 1400 members and we cover transportation and other facilities in NY.  For 2008 to date we have had 22 cardiac arrests with a 51% save rate.

Scott

It's not only important to get AEDs placed everywhere, but also to get people involved in learning how to use them. It is recommended that you take a course to become certified in AED use, but if you want an overview or review of how to use an AED, you can find it here: http://www.howtodothings.com/health-and … -aed.html.

Liz

Columbus (Ohio) City Council Member Patsy Thomas initiated "Project Second Chance," our city's PAD (Public Access Defibrillation) program. We've only been up and running full go for one year, but in that amount of time, we estimate that 3,000 citizens have been trained in CPR; over 1,000 of our city employees have been certified in CPR/AED; and 139 AEDs have been deployed through our outreach efforts. There have been five "saves" since April 2006 in the greater Columbus area--all involving bystander/first responder CPR and utilizing AEDs. Columbus typically has seen a 6% SCA survival rate, but we're working hard to improve that!

Mugsy Reynolds
Hilliard, Ohio

Following my survival of SCA on April 2, 2004, my wife, Susie, and I felt there must be a reason that I became part of that 5% of people who "die" and live to tell about it.  After attending the Second SCA Survivor Summit in Washington, DC, and two Minnesota Survivors Conferences in the Twin Cities, we found many great people in the same situation----only they were doing something about it.

In 2005, we assisted our local school in applying for a grant from the Iowa Department of Health EMS Bureau to place AEDs in our school buildings.  With this grant and another grant from an area foundation, we were able to get three AEDs for our two school buildings.  Susie and I trained the school staff and the AEDs were put in place.  For the past several years, we have been teaching CPR/AED to students in Health Class.

My wife, Susie, and I are proud to say that the AEDs for which we raised funds to place in all the school buildings in our county is complete.

  In the past week, we have trained over 110 school people in eight classes our county's four school districts. Two of the districts sent their entire staffs (teachers, administrators, cooks, custodians, bus drivers, secretaries) and the other two districts sent part of their staffs and plan on having others complete the class later.

And the best part---the AEDs arrived at the schools this week, just in time for thestart of school!!