Alpena City Fire Dept. Holds AED Presentation
Nearly 360,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrest each year, nearly a thousand per day. Zoll Medical and Team Life are looking to reduce those numbers.
They got in contact with the Alpena City Fire Department and gave a presentation on how to properly use an AED machine if someone suffers from sudden cardiac arrest.
“Our mission is very, very simple. We’re trying to encourage businesses, nonprofits, schools, literally anybody, any sort of structure that’s in this community to add an AED to that building,” said Team Life Senior Business Development Manager Tim Ketelhut.
The name of the game is quantity, having more people trained on how to properly use an AED. The heightened interest in being trained to respond to sudden cardiac arrest comes from the incident involving NFL player Damar Hamlin.
“I think it’s important to show our support, I think it’s a great program that they’re putting up here and I’m happy that Team Life can offer a discount and the fire department can offer training to make the community of Alpena even safer,” said Zoll Medical Public Safety Manager Jordan Hill.
The department had a guest speaker, Scott Prell shared his experience suffering sudden cardiac arrest during a marathon last summer and being saved by an AED. He’s now part of the program speaking about the importance of being AED trained.
“Alpena Fire arrived very quickly and at that time is when they shocked me, brought my heart back beating,” said Prell. “I was transported to Alpena General, where I was then airlifted to University of Michigan and made a full recovery.”
The fire department is launching a program to increase the number of AEDs as well as CPR trained individuals. You don’t even have to be a medical professional to do it.
“You simply open up the lid, it’s going to walk you through that, essentially anyone can save a life, anyone can be a hero,” said Hill.
The program offers an opportunity to purchase discounted AEDs and receive CPR training from the Alpena Fire Department.
