EPaper

Life-saving device recovered after being stolen

ARTHUR WILLIAMS

A life-saving device stolen from the parking lot of Masich Place Stadium on Aug. 5-6 has been found, thanks to a sharp-eyed resident.

The automated external defibrillator (AED) was found near some garbage at a gas station, a city spokesperson said in an email.

“The person who found it recognized what it was and returned it to the fire department,” city communications manager Julie Rogers said. “It appears to be in good working order, but we will send it out for testing to be sure. It should be back in place in (two) weeks.”

The machine, which stimulates the heart with electrical current to get it to start beating again, was like those used in hospitals – except it was automated to allow it to be used by an untrained bystander, by following simple instructions. When a cardiac arrest happens outside a hospital, the chances of survival are less than 10 per cent, according to information provided by the B.C. Heart and Stroke Foundation. With access to an AED and CPR, the chances of surviving double.

When the AED was stole, the culprit also vandalized the climate-controlled case for the device, located in the Griffiths Avenue parking lot of Masich Place Stadium.

The AED device was donated by Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond and her family in July 2021, in honour of Bond’s late husband, Bill Bond. Bill Bond died on June 6, 2020, following a stroke.

The installation in a climate-controlled case in an outside area was the first of its kind in B.C. outside the Lower Mainland.

Bond and her family created the Bill Bond Memorial Fund, managed by the Prince George Community Foundation, to raise money to purchase a minimum of 10 of the machines and install them in locations throughout northern B.C.

Donations to the Bill Bond Memorial Fund can be made by going online or by calling the Prince George Community Foundation office at 250-562-7772.

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2022-08-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://princegeorgecitizen.pressreader.com/article/281565179551392

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