Help Gallatin County 911 Build Our Community AED Registry
This October, during Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, the nonprofit PulsePoint Foundation is rewarding communities for identifying and registering AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators).
Each AED registered from October 1 through 31 will gain you an entry to win one of ten $500 Amazon gift cards. Collectively, if Gallatin County is the community that registers the most AEDs, we will be granted $5,000 worth of new AEDs to provide to public safety staff or place in underserved parts of the community.
AEDs must be registered through the free PulsePoint AED app or online at AED.new. After verification by Gallatin County 911, those AEDs are then added to the PulsePoint AED Registry to be shared with bystanders and 911 dispatchers during a cardiac emergency. The globally accessible PulsePoint AED Registry currently includes more than 115,000 AEDs.
Last year, Gallatin County 911 challenged our residents to register locations of AEDs around our community. We started in October 2021 with about 90 registered AEDs in the county. We are now up to 330! A huge thank you to our community members who have taken the time to register.
But we want more! When a cardiac emergency strikes, being able to locate and deploy an AED prior to medical professionals arriving on scene can mean the difference between life and death. So those additional AEDs will certainly help save your family, friends, and neighbors when they are in need.
Visit http://www.pulsepoint.org/aedcontest to download helpful resources and review the complete list of contest rules.
Why Cataloging AED Locations is Crucial
More than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur annually in the U.S. making it a leading cause of death. Survival rates nationally for sudden cardiac arrest are less than 10 percent.
However, cardiac arrest victims who receive a shock from a publicly-available AED administered by a bystander prior to EMS arrival have 2-3 times better odds of survival to hospital discharge and more favorable outcomes. Without bystander AED use, 70 percent of cardiac arrest patients either die or survive with impaired brain function. Despite the life-saving potential of AEDs, they are of no value if they cannot be located and placed into service during a cardiac emergency.
About the PulsePoint Foundation
PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the use of location-aware mobile devices, PulsePoint is building applications that work with local public safety agencies to improve communications with citizens and professional emergency responders, increase civic engagement and encourage the community to help reduce the millions of annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. Learn more at pulsepoint.org or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter. The free app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
About Gallatin County 911
The Gallatin County 911 Center provides the critical link between the community and public safety resources (police officers, deputies, fire departments and paramedics) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Gallatin County 911 provides emergency dispatch services for 16 fire agencies, six law enforcement agencies, four ambulance services and Search and Rescue throughout the county. Learn more on our Facebook page.