Five area businesses and one church recently applied for, and were awarded, grant money from the Sisters – Camp Sherman Fire District for the purchase of an Automatic External Defibrillator.
The goal of the grant program was to maximize the survivability rate from incidents of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). One of the best ways to do that is to have as many AED’s as possible deployed throughout our fire district. The grant recipients are: Three Creeks Brewing Company, Shepard of the Hills Lutheran Church, Metabolic Maintenance Products, Green Ridge Physical Therapy, Sisters Bunkhouse and Suttle Lodge and Boathouse.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest is an abrupt loss of heart function. It is a leading cause of death in the U.S. An AED is a lightweight, portable device which can deliver an electric shock through the chest to the heart, which in many cases, will restore normal heart function.
Once the AED is installed at these businesses, the AED location will be entered into PulsePoint and anyone with the PulsePoint App (available in Google Play or the App Store) will be alerted to sudden cardiac arrests in their immediate vicinity, so that CPR can be started in the critical lifesaving minutes before EMS teams arrive. More information regarding PulsePoint can be found at http://www.pulsepoint.org/.
Fire Chief Roger Johnson said, “We are honored to have these businesses and church as our community partners in life safety. I think it shows how much they care about their customers, employees and congregations.” The fire district contributed 25% of the purchase price of the AED’s and the businesses contributed the remaining 75%.
Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District offers monthly CPR/AED classes for community members and we strongly recommend attending the training.
For more information about CPR/AED classes, contact the Sisters – Camp Sherman Fire District online at www.www.sistersfire.com or call (541) 549-0771.
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