Ron Dundon, Kalamazoo, MI – 53 at the time of the event (February 9, 2003)
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) took my life. I was one of the lucky few to survive. I was playing in a hockey game and was saved by three other players. Since that fateful night, SCA has been my enemy. Upon learning the statistics behind the tragedy, I was driven to fight this killer. Joining forces with the mother of another survivor, we formed a non-profit corporation called the AED Fund of Kalamazoo County (www.aedfund.org), dedicated to donating AEDs to on-call first responders and sponsoring low-cost CPR classes.
We didn’t know it at the time but the organization we formed is called a PAD (public access to defibrillation) program. And we are not alone. All over the country PAD groups are forming, designed to raise awareness and funding for the fight against cardiac arrest.
It will be a long, difficult fight. Most of our funding has come from private citizens and businesses. But we will apply for grant monies and corporate donations, too. Our principal strategy for fundraising has been to target each township separately, asking local businesses to help fund equipment for the local fire department. This has, in our first 2½ years, provided funding for more than 30 AEDs. The goal is to provide enough AEDs to ensure one will be within five minutes of every corner of the county.
Getting CPR training to the public is a more problematic goal. People have to WANT to learn CPR. Even though we have several instructors in our group, we have only run a few classes so far. A great deal of marketing will have to happen before large numbers of the public will be prepared to learn and use CPR. We expect to launch a new project specifically aimed at mass CPR training in the near future.
Operating a PAD program has been very rewarding. One of the AEDs we donated was used to save a life last year. That’s the best payoff ever!
-SCA Survivor Registry submission