All-weather AED cabinets coming to every County municipality

Thanks to a generous $30,000 grant from Enbridge Gas, each municipality in the County of Essex, plus the City of Windsor and Township of Pelee, is in the process of having a life-saving Automated External Defibrillator made permanently available outdoors – for public use at any time, on any day, year-round.

Essex-Windsor EMS is partnering with Enbridge Gas and with each municipality to install one of these cutting-edge, all-weather Rotaid AED cabinets in each of Windsor, Amherstburg, LaSalle, Tecumseh, Lakeshore, Essex, Kingsville, Leamington and Pelee Island.

Each AED will be protected in a circular, all-weather, heated, illuminated, alarm-triggerable Rotaid cabinet with its see-through cover – and installed at a highly visible, prominent, easily accessible location within each municipality.

An AED is a portable electronic device that can restart the heart of a person – of any age – who experiences cardiac arrest. The device monitors a patient’s heartbeat and, if necessary, can deliver one or more heart-resuscitating electric shocks. Even those without medical training can follow an AED’s simple, situation-specific instructions – displayed visually on a digital screen as well as spoken aloud via a built-in speaker – to try to save a life.

Minutes matter when someone suffers cardiac arrest, and interventions by passersby, family or friends with quick access to an AED can mean the difference between life and death. Indeed, applying a defibrillator to someone’s chest in the first 60 seconds of cardiac arrest increases that person’s chances of surviving by 90%. With every minute that passes, chances of survival decrease by 10%.

The need for readily available AEDs outdoors is pressing in Essex County because some 90% of all 1,300 registered AEDs in Essex/Windsor/Pelee are stored indoors, with the vast majority of those typically accessible only during business hours, Monday to Friday.

To help fill this void, Essex-Windsor EMS in August launched its AED Loaner Program – in which the service loans out AED/First-Aid backpacks to the public, free of charge, for short-term special events, or in unique circumstances where temporary access to an AED can help save a life. Initially, four such backpacks were made available at a time; now the number is up to seven.

The outdoor Rotaid AED cabinets are made of durable materials to ensure long-lasting protection in any environment, year-round. A Rotaid AED cabinet is being, or already has been, installed at each of the following locations over the coming weeks in area municipalities:

WINDSOR: Riverside Baseball Park and Farrow Riverside Miracle Park, 6755 Wyandotte St. E.

AMHERSTBURG: Libro Credit Union Centre arena, 3295 Meloche Rd.

LASALLE: Vollmer Centre splashpad, 2121 Laurier Pkwy.

TECUMSEH: New parks & rec building, just south of the traffic circle at Manning Road and Riverside Drive.

LAKESHORE: Lakefront in Belle River, by washrooms, canteen west of the canal.

ESSEX: Colchester Harbour Boat Launch, 100 Jackson St., in Colchester.

KINGSVILLE: Essex County Library, Kingsville branch, 40 Main St. W.

LEAMINGTON: Caldwell First Nation, by the new residences just west of the gas station.

PELEE ISLAND: Municipal Office, 1045 West Shore Rd.