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RIDE for the RED!

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Parents, are you looking for a daycare facility that genuinely cares, not just about your child, but also about your family? Little Friends Childcare Center, located at Battle Creek Friends Church, recently made the decision to purchase a device, through the American Red Cross, that can save the lives of adults and children in cardiac arrest; an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

An AED is a machine that can effectively restart a heart that has stopped beating. It is about the size of a laptop computer and automatically analyzes a heart's rhythm. If it senses an abnormal rhythm it will deliver an electric shock to the heart. Used with CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), an AED will help save the lives of more people in cardiac arrest.

Little Friends took the first step to save lives by training their entire staff in Adult, Infant, and Child CPR and AED First Aid. Laura Zingaretti, director of the daycare says, "I knew that it was a lifesaving device. It is a critical link in the cardiac chain of survival."

In an emergency situation, every second counts. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. It strikes more than 200,000 Americans each year. This results in nearly one death every two minutes. SCA victims often have no prior symptoms. It can attack anyone, anywhere, and at any time. Not having an AED on the premises wastes time and could result in death. Every minute that defibrillation is delayed reduces a person's chance of survival by ten percent.

Due to that cold reality, and the fact that AED's were approved for use on children, the church decided it's acquisition was a necessity. Laura continued, "If we never have to use it, it will be a good thing. If, however, we need it; it is available."

Automated External Defibrillators sound expensive but they really aren't, not when you think about saving a life, you can't put a price on that? Little Friends held a fundraiser to raise the money for an AED. They purchased a unit from Zoll called the Zoll AED Plus.

AEDs range from $1500 to $3000. Zingaretti commented, "It's not that much money to have this device available to complete the cardiac chain of survival."

There are many factors to consider when purchasing an AED, and if you would like more details about an AED program, go to our local Red Cross website's AED page.

Phillips FRX

Phillips onSite

Zoll AED Plus

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