Indiana Health Center Gives 14 AED Units to Community

April 07—Access to an automated external defibrillator can be critical when responding to a heart attack victim, especially in rural communities where an emergency responder may be minutes away.

Now, residents of Sullivan County will have a better chance of surviving a heart attack thanks to Monday's distribution of 14 AEDs to various organizations with people trained to respond to cardiac events.

"I have personal experience, and I have seen these instruments work before," Sheriff Clark Cottom said as he accepted five AED units to be carried in patrol cars with the sheriff's department. "There is a local doctor here in the Wabash Valley that is alive today because of a deputy sheriff and an AED," Cottom told a group gathered at Sullivan County Community Hospital.

And Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Newburgh, a heart surgeon, said that he remembers two of his own patients who were successfully resuscitated through the use of AEDs. Being a native of a small community, Bucshon said, he knows that it can be a struggle for a rural area to have access to health care and devices such as AEDs.

The 14 AEDs were distributed by the Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health as part of a federal grant project that also included a similar distribution of AEDs in Greene County on Monday

The Lugar Center was one of 10 recipients nationally of the Rural Access to External Devices Grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in September 2013. The grant could bring more than $400,000 in federal funds to the Wabash Valley during three years. The grant provides the AEDs as well as basic life support training to community members.

Last year, 38 devices were placed with agencies in Parke and Vermillion counties in Indiana and Clark County in Illinois.

"Fortunately, none of the devices presented last year have been used," said project associate Jackie Mathis of the Lugar Center, "but they are there if needed. When you think about saving a life, the AEDs are not that expensive. But some organizations just cannot afford to get them."

The devices presented Monday in Sullivan County will also go to a youth sports organization, Dugger Union Community School, Sullivan City Park, the county 4-H fair board, and county park and lake.

An AED is a small portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can correct the heart rhythm in a person having a heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, a victim's chance of surviving a heart attack drops by up to 10 percent for every minute that the normal heart beat is not restored.

Mathis noted that because Sullivan County is geographically large and rural, response times for ambulance crews are usually longer than in urban areas.

Lisa Trigg can be reached at 812-231-4254 or at lisa.trigg@tribstar.com. Follow her on Twitter at TribStarLisa.