BATTERY CHECK: Bay Medical Foundation Launches Task Force on AED Power

February 6, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Sudden cardiac arrest is a frightening event whether you live or die. But your chances of living are better if the incident happens where an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) is located.

Thanks to the efforts of a couple whose young son died on a basketball floor in 2007, and a hospital foundation, there are 90 locations with AEDs.

It's been 5-years and since that's about the life of these batteries, the time has come to check the batteries and pads on the Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs). McLaren Bay Medical Foundation is launching a task force on Wednesday, February 6 with the goal of contacting each of the AED location sites to ensure that the batteries are fully charged, that the AEDs are in working condition and that a plan is in place to make sure the units are being checked regularly.

The AEDs were donated to various schools, churches, museums, athletic fields, city entities, and police departments in the Great Lakes Bay Region.

Gena Gates, McLaren Bay Medical Foundation Board Trustee, will chair the AED task force. Others on the task force include McLaren Bay Medical Foundation board members.

In 2007, McLaren Bay Medical Foundation (then known as 'Bay Medical Foundation') launched a community-wide AED fundraising effort with the cooperation of Benjamin and Jan Zurvalec, who lost their son, Stuart, when he suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a basketball tryout at a Bay County middle school.

McLaren Bay Medical Foundation adopted the Zurvalec's goal of placing at least one AED in every school in Bay County and expanded it to include additional locations.

In 2008, McLaren Bay Medical Foundation purchased and distributed the AEDs to the various sites.

The American Red Cross estimates that as many as 50,000 lives could be saved annually by following the 'Chain of Survival' and using an AED. Early defibrillation is possibly the most important link, because CPR alone will not necessarily restore a normal heartbeat.

The Chain of Survival is comprised of:

· Early access

· Early CPR

· Early defibrillation

· Early advanced care

The task force will contact the AED sites by phone, email and by making site visits. The McLaren Bay Medical Foundation will provide training as well as battery and pad replacements if necessary. The progress of the task force can be followed on the Foundation's Facebook and Twitter sites, listed below.

You can follow McLaren Bay Medical Foundation on:

· Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/McLarenBayMedicalFoundation

· Twitter at https://twitter.com/McLarenBayMedFn

· Web at www.mclaren/baymedicalfoundation

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Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read, respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City. (Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com) More from Dave Rogers

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