By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Whenever a 911 call comes in to any dispatch center in Northern Kentucky, the first responders to that call are almost always police officers in their cruisers.
It is only logical then, that police cruisers should be outfitted with AED’s or Automated External Defibrillators, which are lifesaving devices that can be used to shock a heart back to life or to instruct people how to use it to save a life.
Taylor Mill Police Chief James Mills has been with the city of Taylor Mill since 2009, and rose through the ranks to become chief. When he started in 2009 the force had two AED’s. A few years later, the Fire Department gave them an extra AED they had when they decommissioned a car they were using.
Two more AED’s were acquired through the city’s budget for a total of five units.
Chief Mills has a goal of outfitting all of his 11 cruisers with AED’s, so he reached out to the Moose Lodge, which is two doors down from the city building, to see if they ever had any grants for local government.
“They said they didn’t have any grants but they were always very interested and committed to helping the community,” Mills explained. “They hold charitable events to be able to donate money to help with their mission in the community, so they held an event, a Bourbon Raffle, which concluded just before I left to go to the FBI Academy. With this event, they raised enough money to buy two AED units, which they donated to the city.”
Mills said these units have become something that are very necessary to the community, and most area schools either have one or more, or have a goal to acquire one or more in case a student has a life-threatening emergency. He said they are not terribly expensive, but they are definitely not cheap, coming in at over $2,000 apiece.
“They are designed so that most people can operate them,” he explained. “My 12-year- old could do it. It is very user-friendly. As soon as it is set up, it walks you through what to do. If the person needs CPR, It says that. If the heart needs to be shocked, it tells the person to stop CPR and shock the patient. It gives detailed instructions as to what to do until a higher level of care can get there. It can make the difference between life and death in just the few minutes before an ambulance can arrive.”
Moose Lodge Administrator Ron Wilson said the lodge was very happy to help when Chief Mills contacted them.
“One of our goals is to help our community,” Wilson said. “It was a marriage made in heaven, the lodge helping the police to help residents in the community. We do fundraisers all year round. Just recently we did a clothing drive for the Northern Kentucky Emergency Shelter when they needed clothing for men. We give emergency personnel at cities and hospitals our Tommy Moose, a stuffed animal that can comfort children in trauma situations.”
Wilson said they will be doing a Trunk or Treat at Pride Park, and every year they do a Giving Tree and they adopt a Day Care at Christmas. He said a lot of people think they are just a private bar, but he argued that they are so much more, even though he agreed that they do have fun at the lodge. He pointed to the fact that there are over 1300 Moose Lodges in the world, and they have a year round school called Mooseheart in Illinois where they care for and educate about 200 children with no where else to go. They also have a retirement village in Jacksonville, Florida.
Wilson said they raised $2500 from the Bourbon Raffle, and the lodge added about $1750 to the fund so that they could present the police with 2 AED’s with a total price tag of $4250.
According to Wilson, these particular units are the exact same units used by the Taylor Mill Fire Department, so that when they are used, emergency crews can simply plug into the units when they arrive.
“We take care of our community,” Wilson stated.
Chief Mills said it is his goal to have four more AED units by this time next year. He is aggressively pursuing grants that can provide the money necessary to purchase the units. He said the window for applying for the grants has closed but as soon as it opens again he will apply so that he can take the necessary steps to acquire the money for the units.
Currently the officers in his department have a number of different shifts that they work to ensure adequate coverage during each day’s 24 hour period. With AED units for 7 out of 11 cruisers, they try to make sure that every car that is out on patrol has a unit in it, but once in a while it doesn’t happen.
“Having an AED unit in every car is critical to ensuring immediate care to all our residents,” Chief Mills stated. “We have about 7 square miles of road in the city, and we can respond within minutes. Being at an emergency with an AED device definitely saves lives.”