Feb. 29--SEATTLE -- There are now more patrol units on King County roads able to respond to critical medical emergencies. Thanks to a voluntary program, some King County Sheriff's deputies are carrying Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, in patrol cars.
For two weeks, King County sheriff's deputy Martin Duran has been carrying an AED in his patrol car. "Sometimes that's all it takes to be in the right place at the right time, with the right equipment, to make a difference," Duran said.
He's one of 46 deputies who have voluntarily trained on the AEDs so that they can provide aid before emergency medical personnel arrive on the scene.
The training began in January, when King County Emergency Medical Services provided 53 AED's to the King County Sheriff's Office.
"We've changed our dispatch procedures, and so that when there is a cardiac emergency in any of communities we serve, our dispatchers are alerting the area officers to that, if there's an officer with an AED, he or she responds to the call," said sheriff's Capt. Bryan Howard.
And they're targeting some of the rural areas of King County where, county Emergency Medical Services Director Mickey Eisenberg noted, fire department and ambulance response times can take longer to get to a person in medical distress. When it comes to a heart attack, every second counts.
"It's been very difficult to get this kind of life-saving therapy quickly to the scene in those rural communities. That's really what it comes down to, the time of collapse in cardiac arrest, to administration of CPR, and electric shock from defibrillator, that really is the most important thing that determines whether a person lives or dies," Eisenberg said.
Already, four people's lives have been saved. Duran hasn't had to use his AED yet, but feels good knowing it's there if he needs it.
The devices each cost $1,000 dollars and last for a long time. All 53 were funded through King County's Emergency Medical Services with levy dollars approved by residents. The agency will be applying for future grants with the goal of eventually outfitting all of its patrol units.
It's another example, Eisenberg said, of how the county is leading the world when it comes to saving people from cardiac arrest ,
"It's a remarkable 50 percent; King County, along with the city of Seattle is able to save half of all the people who suddenly collapse in cardiac arrest. It's remarkable testimony to the citizens who are trained in CPR, the dispatchers who deliver the notice immediately and give CPR instructions over the telephone, the firefighters who quickly give CPR, paramedics who give life support, and now in the King County Sheriff's Office, along with other police department units , it's a remarkable achievement," Eisenberg said.
Copyright 2012 - KCPQ/KMYQ-TV, Seattle
