Click to watch their story

Shock and Save Community AED Initiative

Help Improve AED Access, Availability, and Education... Help Save Lives

When someone’s heart suddenly stops beating, every minute without defibrillation and CPR lowers the chance of survival by nearly 10%. When a bystander uses an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) on a person in cardiac arrest,  their likelihood of survival doubles. Medstar recognizes community AED placement as the most important component of increasing cardiac arrest survival throughout its nine-county service area.  

Medstar has provided mini-grants to purchase AEDs for local civic, educational, and religious facilities for the past eight years and is now inviting the community to support the program’s expansion. The Medstar Shock and Save Initiative is designed to:

  • Measurably increase cardiac arrest survival throughout Medstar’s emergency service area
  • Increase AED access and utilization
  • Increase CPR and AED training
  • Support community leaders in local efforts to increase cardiac arrest survival and expand community CPR/AED training and AED ordinances

“Medstar recognizes community AED placement as the most important component of increasing cardiac arrest survival throughout our nine-county service area,” said Kolby Miller, Medstar CEO. “We’re incredibly thankful for our healthcare and community partners for helping us expand this vital initiative. The more AEDs we can get into the community, the more lives will be saved.”

Shock and Save Golf Outings

The recent expansion of our “Shock and Save” community AED initiative is off to a fantastic start. Through two charity golf outings, we raised enough funds to provide 85 AEDs to the communities it serves.

AEDs save lives

AEDs strengthen the chain of survival locally and nationally. Click the link below to see how a middle school student was recently saved by an AED while in gym class.

 

AED Facts

♥   Since 2015, Medstar has donated AEDs to schools, churches, and other nonprofit and civic organizations and trained over 1,900 people in CPR free of charge.

♥   Only 10% of people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survive. However, their survival chances double if a bystander uses an AED before first responders arrive.

♥   A study found investing in AEDs was the most effective way to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates. A $1 million investment translates into more than a hundred lives saved. 

♥   Michigan provides legal immunity to people who use AEDs or provide CPR to patients in cardiac arrest.

AED and CPR Grant Application

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.