BOISE, Idaho — A life-saving device is now easier to find in Boise’s public spaces thanks to work by Boise Fire and Boise Parks and Recreation.
Automated external defibrillators, known as AEDs, can help revive someone experiencing sudden cardiac arrest — and the city is placing them in strategic locations such as Ann Morrison Park.
“AED use is the number one thing, second only to compressions, that makes a difference early on in the process,” said EMS Division Chief Kurt Freeman with Boise Fire.
WATCH: Learn more about AEDs and how to find them near you
Freeman explained that seconds matter when a person is in cardiac arrest, and they regularly see public AEDs getting used in emergency situations.
“We are seeing public AEDs being deployed. Currently in Boise, it happens about 8 to 10 times a year, but every year that number seems to go up,” Freeman said.
Boise Fire uses the PulsePoint AED app to track more than 600 devices around Ada County.
“Those are in group homes. Those are in businesses. Those are in public buildings. They’re all over the city,” Freeman said.
A grant helped Boise Parks and Recreation install the devices at some of the city’s busiest parks.
“For example, our Optimist [Youth Sports Complex] location off of Hill Road, we try to equip a lot of those busier locations where there’s a lot of physical activity going on with defibrillators,” said Doug Holloway, Director of Boise Parks and Recreation.
Some AEDs in city parks can connect to public Wi-Fi, with future plans to automatically alert first responders if one is deployed.
“The technology is developing, we’re not 100% to where it’s linked in with the dispatch center like we'd like," said Freeman. We’d like to get [to the point where] removing that AED would immediately notify dispatch.”
“The key is that if someone gets bystander compressions or AED, their chances of survival double, so it makes a huge difference,” he added.
PulsePoint AED is free to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
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