TUPELO, MS - The line between life and death is often separated by seconds, which is why the Tupelo Police and Lee County Sheriff's departments say having automated external defibrillators in patrol cars can help to save lives.
The Weston Reed Foundation has donated 21 AEDs to the Tupelo Police Department and Lee County Sheriff's Department, and officers received training on how to use them Tuesday. Each machine costs more than $2,000 and will arrive soon.
Tupelo Police Officers Robert Vail and David Harvel instructed the course for officers and deputies at the Tupelo Police Academy.
Because police officers are often the first people on emergency scenes, Vail said the AED is a important life-saving tool.
“We are going to train everyone in the department on how to use these machines,” said Vail. “It's one thing to do CPR, but with the AED we can actually assess heart activity at the scene and that's a very important thing.”
Because his deputies are often miles away from any other help, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson said the machines will be crucial in the fight against time for people who live in rural areas.
Thirteen AEDs will go to the police department and eight to the sheriff’s department. The city is broken up into 10 zones, so one AED will be available in each zone and the other three will be given to department supervisors. The sheriff’s department will distribute its AEDs the same way.
The need for AEDs came to light after 11-year-old Weston Reed died of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) while playing soccer at Ballard Park in August 2007. No AEDs were available at the park that evening.
Weston Reed Foundation chairwoman Jennifer Mulrooney said the AEDs will give people in SCA a better chance of survival than only using CPR.
Since Reed’s death, AEDs have been placed in every city park, school and other places around the city that are high-traffic areas.
“If someone goes into cardiac arrest they have only a 5 percent survival rate without a defibrillator," said Mulrooney. "It's hard to say if Weston would have survived if a defibrillator had been used, but he would have had a chance.”
-Adapted from article by Danza Johnson, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
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