You and the local community could benefit from a recent addition of life-saving defibrillators.   The Southern Door Fire Department announced this week that it had received two recently purchased AED LifePak units for two Emergency Medical Responders (EMR).  Fire Chief Rich Olson says the purchase of medical equipment was made possible through a WPS Foundation Grant, monies raised from the annual Picnic fundraiser, and an anonymous donor.

The automated external defibrillators (AED) are portable devices designed to treat people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.  Olson notes that the two AED units cost $5500 and that the Southern Door Fire Department now has about a dozen defibrillators distributed among staff and vehicles.  Studies estimate that about 1700 lives are saved every year in the United States with AEDs.  The survival rate is 70 percent when it is used within two minutes of collapse during cardiac arrest. 

(photo courtesy of Southern Door Fire Department)