Talbot CARES Partners with SaveHeart forAED Enclosures

Talbot Paramedic Foundation and Team Trace have announced the selection of SaveHeart by HeartNation as their outdoor AED cabinet partner for the Talbot CARES (Cardiac Arrest Rescue and Emergency Station) program. Talbot CARES is among a select group of Public Access Defibrillator (PAD) programs making automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available throughout the community.
There are approximately 250 defibrillators located in government buildings, businesses, and non-profit facilities throughout Talbot County through the efforts of the Talbot Paramedic Foundation’s AED program. Local police cars are equipped with an AED and are dispatched along with fire and EMS units upon receipt of a reported cardiac arrest. The program has grown to a county-wide effort that is broadly supported.
Talbot Paramedic Foundation joined forces years ago with another non-profit, Team Trace, and with Gunther’s Electric and Talbot Department of Emergency Services have enabled expanded access to outdoor AEDs and other life-saving equipment throughout Talbot County. Many other local organizations have supported the program through funding or in-kind services. To date, there are more than 12 Talbot CARES stations located in six Talbot County parks.
The first Talbot CARES enclosure not located at a recreational facility is now placed in downtown Easton on Washington Street across from the courthouse and was chronicled in a recent WBOC news story (https://www.saveheart.life/easton-mds-first-publicly-accessible-outdoor-aed-placed-downtown). This significantly expanded access to an AED on a 24 hour per day basis in the town’s central business district and was sponsored by local business Bluepoint Hospitality.
“We selected SaveHeart by HeartNation as our vendor for Talbot CARES because of their experience and leadership in deploying public access AED programs with several communities around the country. SaveHeart Outdoor enclosures are manufactured in the United States and offer a wide range of innovative and technologically advanced solutions that house AEDs and other emergency supplies such as Stop the Bleed kits,” stated Wayne Dyott, president of Talbot Paramedic Foundation. Dyott continued, “Talbot CARES is successful because the entire community has supported us, and we are grateful for the many individuals and organizations whose contributions have helped us make this lifesaving program a reality.”
The Talbot Paramedic Foundation has a long history of working toward saving lives by increasing awareness, raising funds, developing life-saving programs, providing training, and encouraging paramedic professionalism. The foundation has been supporting efforts to improve EMS in Talbot County since the mid-1980s (talbotparamedic.org).
Team Trace is a local non-profit organization dedicated to improving outcomes for children with congenital heart disease (CHD) by raising awareness, supporting and developing community outreach programs, and funding CHD research. Team Trace has been a long-standing co-sponsoring organization supporting the Talbot CARES community AED initiative (teamtrace.org).
“SaveHeart is honored to serve as the outdoor AED cabinet vendor for Talbot CARES, one of the pre-eminent programs in the country focused on reducing unnecessary deaths from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) through enhanced AED accessibility, awareness and training,” said Dave Fritzsche, SaveHeart Founder and AED industry veteran. “Talbot Paramedic Foundation, Team Trace, and the Talbot County Department of Emergency Services have been true pioneers in enabling community-focused lifesaving programs for decades, including the movement to put AEDs outdoors in all-weather, temperature regulated, and monitored SaveHeart smart cabinets to enable 24 x 7 accessibility. By providing immediate access to lifesaving AEDs in outdoor locations throughout the community, Talbot CARES enables lay responders to take action during an emergency before EMS arrives- this significantly increases the odds of survival from sudden cardiac arrest for anyone living in or visiting Talbot County.”