Essex-Windsor EMS has launched a new initiative to get life-saving AEDs into the hands of organizers of events and gatherings across Windsor and Essex County.
Holding a big family reunion? A wedding? A fundraiser golf tournament? Any weekend sports tournament? Or any outsized gathering of people? Then you should strongly consider signing out – for free – an Automatic External Defibrillator from Essex-Windsor EMS.
These easy-to-use, life-saving devices are now available for temporary use at short-term, one-off events or gatherings, especially those taking place in outdoor venues or places and circumstances where immediate access to an AED might be unknown, uncertain, or unreasonably too far away.
Minutes matter when someone suffers cardiac arrest and interventions by passersby and fellow event goers with quick access to AEDs can mean the difference between life and death.
“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%,” said Dave Thibodeau of Essex-Windsor EMS. “With every minute that passes after that, the chances decrease by 10%.”
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.
Even those without medical training can follow an AED’s simple instructions to try to save a life.
EWEMS’ loaner, ZOLL-brand AEDs are so user-friendly and cutting edge that, unlike many earlier models, these not only play simple, precise audio instructions out of the device’s speaker, but flash word instructions simultaneously on the device’s electronic viewing screen – meaning the hearing impaired, too, can now save a life using an AED.
The intent of EWEMS’ new loaner program is to make AEDs and first-aid tools even more accessible and available throughout Windsor and Essex County – for a weekend or just for special one-day gatherings. Bear in mind that few of the estimated 2,000-plus AEDs scattered throughout Essex County are readily accessible 24/7.
EWEMS’ loaner AEDs are stored in backpacks for maximum portability. Also stocked in each backpack are simple 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 – again, without any rental fees – to any group that qualifies after having completed an application, in advance.
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.
Preferably, that credentialed person is the one who picks up the AED(s), so as to be briefed by EMS on the device, plus other backpack contents.
In some circumstances, Essex-Windsor EMS might still loan out an AED if no one in the loaning group is credentialed in First Aid or CPR training. In that case, however, at least one person in the group – ideally more – must attend a two-hour education session given by EWEMS on how to properly use an AED. This session would not certify any such participant in either First Aid or CPR.
Applications for loaner AEDs must be received at least five business days prior to an event. Essex-Windsor EMS determines how many AEDs are required for each approved request. As of now, EMS has four backpacks to loan out.
Learn more at countyofessex.ca/emergency-services.
