The Allendale Rural Fire Protection District received a new Automated External Defibrillator (AED) purchased with funds donated to the District by friends and family of Nadine Smith.
“We are very appreciative of their generosity,” said Chief Gerald Brooks, “these life saving devices cost approximately $2,000.00. The purchase was made possible solely because of generous people honoring Nadine Smith, who was always a generous supporter of our fire department.” The Allendale firefighters voted to use the donated funds to procure the AED to honor the memory of Ms. Smith.
Cardiac arrest kills more than 450,000 people annually in the United States. Currently, a person who suffers sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital has only about a 5 percent chance of surviving. Defibrillation is the only effective treatment for sudden cardiac arrest and 90% of cardiac arrest victims treated with a defibrillator within one minute of arrest can survive, but every minute after the initial event that a person goes without treatment decreases a person’s chance of survival by 10 percent.
The Allendale Fire Department has an AED on each of its three fire engines and its rescue squad. “The new AED will replace our oldest AED and we will keep the older unit at our station in Allendale as a spare,” explained Chief Brooks.
