Banner Health EMTs acquire life-saving equipment for senior centers
Program will provide training to use automated external defibrillators
With heart attacks, every minute counts. The two things that increase a person’s survival rates are high quality CPR and using an AED.

Contact: Sara Quale
sara.quale@bannerhealth.com
(970) 810-6133

WHEATLAND, Wyo. (July 26, 2019) – Sometimes when you see a community need, the right thing to do is fill it. That’s exactly what two Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from Banner Health’s Platte County Memorial Hospital did when they noticed that the local senior centers lacked Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs.

Kevin Doucette and Dana Sanborn, both EMTs at Platte County Memorial Hospital in Wheatland, worked with the Wyoming EMS Coalition to obtain a grant to purchase five AEDs for the Services for Seniors locations throughout Platte County. Staff at the seniors centers underwent CPR training last month as preparation for the AEDs, which will be installed later this summer.

“We appreciate the concern of the EMTs and their willingness to train us,” Carolyn Teter said, Director for Services for Seniors in Platte County. “If we need to assist a senior, we will have that capability and are prepared.”

AEDs are a portable device that delivers an electric shock to the heart and can be used to help people having a heart attack or to stop an irregular heart beat.

Brenda Teter, Clinical Education Specialist at Platte County Memorial Hospital, said that having AEDs accessible greatly increases survival rates.

“With heart attacks, every minute counts. The two things that increase a person’s survival rates are high quality CPR and using an AED,” she explained.

Carolyn Teter said the five senior center locations, on average, serve a combined 230 seniors a day. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 25 percent of Platte County’s population is age 65 and older.

Teter said the senior centers used to have AEDs but they became outdated and had to be removed. “The new ones are user friendly,” she adds.

Brenda Teter said it’s the hosptial’s goal to have someone on staff at the senior centers at any one time who knows how to use an AED. Banner Health EMTs will also continue to monitor the AEDs at the senior centers as part of their monthly blood pressure check.

About Platte County Memorial Hospital

Platte County Memorial Hospital has provided medical excellence to the residents of Platte County since 1955. The hospital offers emergency care, inpatient services, cardiopulmonary care, inpatient and ambulatory surgery, laboratory, medical imaging and women’s care. It operated by Banner Health, a nonprofit hospital and health care system with 28 hospitals in six states. For more information, visit www.bannerhealth.com/PlatteCounty.