PORT ANGELES — An initiative putting defibrillators in police vehicles has already helped people suffering heart attacks.
An automatic external defibrillator delivers a shock to help regulate a heartbeat during a cardiac arrest, said Port Angeles Fire Chief Dan McKeen.
McKeen and Port Angeles Police Deputy Chief Brian Smith have been collaborating on the project since Smith became deputy chief in 2008.
Since police officers are frequently patrolling, they are sometimes closer than an ambulance when a report is made of a person with a heart problem, Smith said.
A defibrillator was used in the past couple of months and saved a local man, Smith said, though he declined to go into details because of patient privacy laws.
Another time one was hooked up, but the machine — which firsts tests the person’s heartbeat and then tells the officer whether a shock is needed — determined that it was not necessary.
“Also since we’ve started this program, we had one instance where the officer didn’t have a defibrillator but he started CPR on a person,” Smith said.
“Just the awareness this raises is another benefit of having these.”
Ultimate goal
Ultimately the goal is for all 28 marked police vehicles to have a defibrillator, McKeen said.
The primary reason for having more officers equipped is the time element.
McKeen said that fewer than 30 percent of people survive a cardiac arrest — even with CPR in a community with a paramedic system.
“The perception is that we save more than we don’t,” McKeen said.
“But that is not the case.
“As paramedics we probably have the opposite view where we remember every single one that we lose.”
Every minute earlier that a defibrillator is used, a person’s chance of survival increases by 10 percent, McKeen said.
Once a person goes into cardiac arrest, paramedics have only four to six minutes to save the person, McKeen said.
In a best-case scenario — in which another person reports the cardiac arrest immediately and paramedics make the best possible response time — eight minutes likely have lapsed, he said.
“That is in an ideal situation where everything thing happens exactly right,” McKeen said.
“That is as good as it really gets.”
Donations
The three defibrillators that the departments currently have were donated by the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and the Port Angeles Rotary Club, McKeen said.
Each one costs about $1,500.
The Fire Department has been working with police officers to train them how to use the machines.
“This is something we could only do with interest,” McKeen said. “If there were no interest from the police, we wouldn’t even consider trying to convince them.”
Smith said he was interested because he has a background as a paramedic and he reached out to the Fire Department to begin the program.
“Ultimately we would love to see one of these in every single law enforcement vehicle in the county,” Smith said.
“Sequim has some, the State Patrol has a couple and we have some now, but we would like to make a concerted effort for people to know that when they see a marked car they will know there is a defibrillator inside to help.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
