Harrison Ferry gets new equipment

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Members of the Harrison Ferry Fire Department are shown receiving a portable defibrillator from County Mayor Kenneth Rogers. Pictured are, from left, Wendell Webb, Rogers, Terry Worch and Bobby Priest. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

Harrison Ferry Fire Department was provided with an important piece of life-saving equipment last week when County Mayor Kenneth Rogers presented a Cardiac Science defibrillator to department Fire Chief Terry Worch, assistant Fire Chief Wendell Webb and first responder Bobby Priest.

“We are greatly appreciative to the county for receiving this,” said Worch, “and to Kenneth. This will really help out the Harrison Ferry community since we do not have one.”

The unit, called an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), was obtained with funds from the Homeland Security grant Rogers applied for last year. Rogers has been using these funds, which have just recently become available, to purchase much needed emergency equipment for the county.

The machines are designed to treat ventricular fibrillation, a fatal arrhythmia of the heart which can occur as a result of all kinds of conditions. The heart basically stops and begins to quiver with an uncontrolled rhythm, no longer pumping blood through the body. The defibrillator is an external power source that sends a wave of electricity across the chest and through the heart that stops the quivering heart altogether in the hope it will restart in a normal rhythm, giving the patient a chance to be transported to a medical facility for treatment.

According to ambulance service paramedic Brian Jennings, who also acts as the county’s First Responder Coordinator, the new, far more portable machines represent a quantum leap over early defibrillators which tended to be large and cumbersome.

“These particular models are more modern, more user-friendly, and take less maintenance by far,” Jennings said. “They have better batteries on them and are easier to carry around.”

“It’s the best thing since aspirin,” said Rogers, who noted tests had shown the defibrillators increased the survival rate of heart attack victims by 30 percent, something he felt was of great importance since heart attacks seem to be on the rise, even in younger people.

“We’re just trying to save some lives,” Rogers said.

Earlier defibrillators couldn’t be used on victims under 8-years-old or under 55 pounds, but the new machines can be used for these patients if necessary.

“It has infant pads for them that reduce the charge that it puts through them,” Rogers said. “It’s just a better machine.”

Rogers said he plans to make the machines available to first responders around the county.

Currently there are seven volunteer fire departments. Viola, Morrison, Centertown, North Warren, Campaign/Rock Island, Collins River and the most recent addition, Harrison Ferry. Jennings said these volunteers, particularly the first responders, provide a great service to their community.

“They respond from their homes,” he said. “They carry their equipment on themselves, in their private vehicles. When they volunteer, they volunteer everything, their gas, they volunteer their time and more.”

Jennings said the importance of the machines, and the first responders who volunteer their time to train to use them, can’t be overestimated.

“In a rural setting, I guess you could say they’re worth their weight in gold when it comes to somebody’s life,” Jennings said.