Community Corner
Glendora Police Save 23rd Victim of Heart Attack with Defibrillator
Woman who collapsed after leaving Oak Tree Festival is alive and alert thanks to device carried in every police car.
Glendora Police have saved 23 lives since making defibrillators a regular part of police equipment carried in squad cars in 1997.
The 23rd was a woman who collapsed at Glendora High School after leaving the St. Dorothy Church Oak Tree Festival shortly after midnight on May 22.
An officer patrolling the area in a police car stopped and treated the woman using CPR and electrical shock from an automated external defibrillator. The woman was then helped by arriving paramedics who transported her to Inter-Community Hospital in Covina.
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“She is alive and awake,” said police Lt. Rob Lamborghini, who heads up the defibrillator training program at Glendora Police Department.
Officers receive training twice a year, he said.
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Defibrillators send electrical signals to the heart to resuscitate people experiencing cardiac arrest.
The device is not required by law to be in police cars. But Glendora Police Department saw the need and put them in all patrol cars.
Sgt. Matt Williams said he has used the device, but not in a life-saving situation so far. But he is quickly to point out that nearly two dozen people are alive because they received quick treatment from trained Glendora Police officers.
Studies have found that 50,000 American lives are lost each year that could have been saved by use of automated external defibrillators. Because of this, the device, which ranges in price from about $1,000 to $10,000 or more, is appearing in more locations.
Besides police cars, they can be found in schools, airports, businesses, first aid booths at major events and government buildings.
Although defibrillators have been proved to save lives, medical experts say that training in CPR can be just as important. Both are vital in treating a heart attack victim.
But when it comes to arrhythmia, an automated external defibrillator can be a valuable, life-saving tool.
A study directed by Dr. Myron Weisfeldt of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore found that 79 percent of cardiac arrest victims had the kind of disrupted heart rhythm that can be corrected by an electrical shock form a defibrillator. The study also found that time is of the essence and the treatment must begin quickly.
That is one reason why defibrillators are in Glendora Police patrol cars.
