The Penhold Volunteer Fire Department has received one of 150 defibrillators distributed around Alberta in early November.
“We put it in service on Wednesday night,” said Jim Pendergast, Penhold's fire chief. He said the majority of Penhold's firefighters are trained as medical responders and almost all of them are at CPR health-care provider levels and already familiar with automated external defibrillators (AED), so just need training on this particular model.
“It's a great help to the municipality,” Pendergast said. He said so far this year the department has received over 50 medical calls.
The Penhold fire department already had one AED Pendergast acquired second-hand from the Vancouver Olympics.
“But the standard is to have one on every (truck),” he said.
The 150 defibrillators were distributed to successful applicants around Alberta by Alberta Health Services, the Heart & Stroke Foundation and the EMS Foundation in Calgary, according to a press release from Alberta Health Services.
Penhold's application was one of 200 received this summer.
The press release said all of the new devices will be registered into a directory that will allow AHS-EMS dispatchers to tell callers where the nearest AED is during cardiac emergencies.
Currently Penhold has over 30 volunteer firefighters but can use more volunteers from the town, Pendergast said. If interested in signing up, contact the fire department.
The Salvation Army Pine Lake Camp also received an AED as part of the distribution.
