PARIS — Police hope new defibrillators will help them save more lives in areas with limited medical access.
In a news release Monday, the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office announced it received 18 new Automatic Electronic Defibrillators — or AEDs — through a grant from MCD Public Health and the Maine Cardiovascular Health Council.
According to Chief Deputy Hart Daley, the equipment, which costs roughly $1,200 per unit, will be outfitted in each cruiser and the department’s central office in South Paris.
In 2013, there were roughly 359,000 cardiac arrests outside of hospitals, according to the American Heart Association. Just one in 10 people survived.
Eight cruisers are outfitted with the equipment and the devices have been used a few times, according to Daley.
“These AEDs will be transported in the cruisers with the deputies to be ‘at the ready’ in the event of a cardiac emergency in the rural and geographically isolated areas within Oxford County,” he said.
The equipment is part of a project placing 300 units over the next three years in central, western, eastern and northern Maine communities. Daley said the defibrillators, which emit an electric pulse to the heart in case of cardiac failure, are easy to use and inexpensive to maintain.
ccrosby@sunmediagroup.net
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