The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office is equipping 14 more of its patrol cars with automated external defibrillators, which can be used to help revive people who have suffered a heart attack.
The department currently has 13 vehicles with the AEDs.
Early access to a portable defibrillator and high-quality CPR are integral components of surviving cardiac arrest, Sheriff Curtis Landers said in a news release announcing the additions.
Deputies are routinely dispatched to cardiac incidents in the county, he said, sometimes arriving before fire or ambulance paramedics. If an AED delivers a shock within the first three to five minutes after a person’s heart stops, the odds of survival are 60 percent to 70 percent.
“The lifesaving tools we’ve implemented in the past, such as the opioid overdose drug Narcan, field tourniquets, and hemostatic agents have allowed deputies to save lives,” Landers said. “These AEDs provide our deputies with an additional lifesaving tool …”