July 20 Deadline to Apply for Defibrillator

Oklahoma City, Ok. – Health officials and others gathered at a news conference in Oklahoma City July 10 to announce that a grant of more than $230,000 from the Health Resouces Services Administration has gone to purchase 91 automated external defibrillators. About the size of laptop computers, these can even be used by a lay person to deliver prompt defibrillation to a person with cardiac arrest.
According to Ok. State Commissioner of Health Dr. Leslie Beitsch, the Sooner State ranks second in the nation in the number of cardiac arrest deaths. And receiving defibrillation within the first five minutes can greatly improve the patient's chance of survival.
The program would like to place the units in communities with less than 5,000 residents, with priority given to towns of less than 2,000. The goal is to put them in radio-dispatched mobile units available 24 hours a day for quick dispatch to emergency cases.
Applications are being accepted through July 20 at local councils of governments across the state. Training at tech ed centers will be included for recipients. For more information call 405-271-4027.