County Purchases New Defibrillators

Members of the Highlands County Fire Services and Highlands County Emergency Management spent the better half of Wednesday morning unpacking, taking inventory and testing 26 new Lifepack 1000 Automated External Defibrillator (AEDs) that will be issued to the Highlands County Fire Services staff, emergency management and the volunteer fire departments.

Charles Andrews, fire service supervisor for the county, said they needed to make the purchase to replace the 10-year-old defibrillators that were used for adult cardiac arrests. He also said that the county made the purchase to comply with current standards.

"The American Heart Association has changed its standards on how the machines operate in order to achieve more chest compressions per minute with less down time for shocks and analyzing," Andrews said.

An advantage to the technology of the new AEDs is that they can be used to shock infants and children and can be used to monitor heart rhythms in addition to be used for cardiac arrests. Plus they are upgradable, Andrews said, explaining that they can simply upgrade the software without purchasing an entire unit. .

Each unit cost $1,900. Andrews said that each unit was purchased through district funds. For example, he said, the defibrillator purchased for Leisure Lakes Volunteer Fire Department was paid through the tax dollars from Leisure Lakes residents. He said they typically cost $3,000 per unit but were able to get them at a reduced rate by piggybacking on a national bid.