The Heart and Stroke Foundation is outfitting nine Oxford County arenas with potentially live saving automated external defibrillators.
Nine Oxford arenas are getting automated external defibrillators or AEDs thanks to the Heart and Stroke Foundation's National AED Hockey Program.
13 units in all have been donated at a cost of $2,000 a piece.
Acting Community Education Coordinator Susan White says these units will go a long way to saving lives.
"Research has shown that you decrease your chances of survival from a sudden cardiac arrest seven to ten per cent every minute you are without CPR and defibrillation so the sooner we can get these AEDs on someone who has collapsed and potentially needs them, the better their chance of survival. It can take an ambulance eight to ten minutes to get to you you."
According to Public Health, the survival rate of victims for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is less than five per cent. However, the use of an AED with CPR before the arrival of emergency medical services can increase the chance of survival by up to 75 per cent.
"We train at least ten people for each unit that is put out in the facility. That is paid back to us as well for our time. The Oxford EMS AED program then helps to maintain them by replacing anything that is expired. The pads expire about every four years."
White says even if you don't have training, you can use the device.
"Truly anyone who is walking down the street can take it off the shelf and use it. They set it up so it's as user friendly as possible. Using it is the important thing. As they say, CPR keeps you going but it's the defibrillation that actually helps to bring your heart back into a normal rhythm."
By the end of March, the Heart and Stroke Foundation in partnership with Oxford County EMS will have placed over 100 AEDs in public spaces within Oxford County and local Paramedics have trained more than 1,100 people in CPR and defibrillation since the program began.
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