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Draper Journal

Fire department donates AEDs to police department

Jun 19, 2017 03:04PM ● By Kelly Cannon

Fire Chief Clint Smith addresses the Draper City Council during the June 6 meeting. (Kelly Cannon/City Journals)

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]
 
During a special presentation at the Draper City Council meeting, the newly formed Draper Fire Department donated three automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to the Draper Police Department. The AEDs were given to the police department on June 6.
 
“We appreciate the opportunity to come before you tonight for what we think is a good occasion to be able to present our police department with three AEDs tonight,” said Fire Chief Clint Smith.
 
Smith explained the newly formed Draper Fire Department is in the building and preparation phase of development, including purchasing a large amount of emergency medical equipment.
 
“During that time, we became aware that our police department currently does not have AEDs as a tool in their arsenal and they have been considering and looking at funding options to get a few AEDs to put in their patrol cars,” Smith said. “We talked about and felt that it was important as part of that purchasing process to be able to secure a few extra AEDs to be able to give to our police department.”
 
Smith said having an AED is a vital tool when it comes to lifesaving measures. According to Smith, 460,000 Americans each year experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The two key factors of securing survivability rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are early CPR and early defibrillation.
 
“Normally, only about 10 percent of these patients survive historically,” Smith said. “If CPR is started within two minutes and a defibrillator is deployed within 10 minutes, survivor rates increase as high as 85 percent. That shows you the significance of this tool.”
 
While the fire department does have AEDs in their stations, their response time to an emergency is generally six to eight minutes. Smith said since police are constantly out and about the city in their police cars, they can be on scene and can begin to render care faster than the fire department.
 
“In their patrol vehicles, they’re out and about in the community,” Smith said. “They may be able to arrive and initiate this lifesaving care earlier than we can.”
 
The fire department donated not only the AEDs, but also training to the police department to teach the police officers how to use the AEDs.
 
“Tonight, we’re happy to present three AEDs to our police department and be able to provide them with some training and ongoing training with this,” Smith said. “It’ll be another tool for them to carry to increase the care we provide to our community.”
 
Police Chief Bryan Roberts thanked Smith for the AEDs, saying the training will take place within 30 days of the meeting.
 
“Having these AEDs is going to be a wonderful tool and a lifesaving piece of equipment for our community,” Roberts said.
 
Mayor Troy Walker thanked Smith and his team for donating both the AEDs and the training sessions.
 
“Hopefully they won’t have to use them and if they do, they’ll be able to save some lives,” Walker said. “Thank you for looking out for each other.”