GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Every Kent County Sheriff’s Department cruiser is now equipped with a tool credited with increasing cardiac arrest survival rates.
As of two weeks ago, each patrol car has an automatic external defibrillator — more commonly known as an AED — thanks to a $72,000 federal grant.
The devices use a powerful jolt of electricity to shock a heart back into its normal rhythm during cardiac arrest.
“We’re very excited about it. It improves somebody’s chances of living through one of these episodes by 73 percent, so obviously as another service to our citizens to be there at the right moment when somebody has the right need, it’s what we’re hoping for,” Undersheriff Michelle Young said.
It’s an initiative the sheriff’s department has been working on for the last five to seven years. One of the main stumbling blocks was the money. AEDs aren’t cheap, with each one costing roughly $1,200.
Young said buying AEDs came after funding the department’s mandatory and auxiliary functions. She said AEDs are not part of mandatory functions because the department’s primary role isn’t medical first response.
But the AEDs make deputies prepared to be part of a multiagency effort to save lives.