By Mary Drier (Contact / Staff Bio)
October 21, 2009 - 10:26 a.m. EST

CARO — Law enforcement agencies in Tuscola County got a crash course on saving lives Tuesday.

Covenant Health Care has bought 12 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for police agencies in the county, and Mobile Medical Response (MMR) crews trained officers how to use the new Zoll AED Plus.

“We have been working on this project for some time and are proud to be a part of the partnership that brings this life-saving device to the law enforcement units in Tuscola County,” explained MMR Vice President Randy Gerber in a press release.

Officers that were trained were from the Tuscola County Sheriff’s Department, as well as officers from Caro, Cass City, Fairgrove, Vassar, Watertown and Mayville.

“This is a wonderful gift they’ve given our county,” said Tuscola County Lee Teschendorf, noting it comes down to a “gift of life.”

Covenant Health Care spent about $12,000 for the AED’s and MMR’s staff provided the training.

“When I first talked to Sheriff Teschendorf about the idea of placing AEDs in the cars, I was not sure where we would get the funding for such a program of this size,” said Gerber. “Without Covenant Health Care’s generous support, we would not have been able to advance this life-saving program to the citizens of Tuscola County.”

The Zoll AED units will be placed in police cars for use during emergency situations.

“All of our sheriff deputies are trained in CPR, but the AED provides additional life-saving support,” said Teschendorf.

Like other AED devices, the Zoll AED delivers a shock to the patient’s heart when necessary. Plus, it also features real CPR help, a tool that is able to actually “see” what a rescuer is doing and provide feedback to help them do it well.

For example, audio and visual prompts provide the following: Not pushing hard enough? It will tell you when to push harder.

Pushing hard enough? It will say, “Good compressions.”

Not pushing fast enough? A metronome will lead you to the right rate.

It will even show you the depth of each compression, in real time.

Not yet started? The AED Plus will tell you again to get started.

Compressions stopped? It will tell you to continue.

The AEDs will be in sheriff’s department and police vehicles starting Wednesday (today).

Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.