ST. PAUL, Minn. - Officials in Minnesota are hoping a national program can catch on locally and help cardiac arrest victims.
The program is called AED Link and it is aimed at getting defibrillators to cardiac patients faster.
Doctors say when someone goes into cardiac arrest they have only a few minutes to shock the heart and get it beating again. The AED Link program and database would allow emergency dispatchers to tell people at the scene where they can find the closest defibrillator.
"Currently there's 400 AEDs registered in the state of Minnesota. We know there's thousands more," said Dr. Charlie Lick with Allina Medical Transportation. "We've got to get the AEDs registered through the national AED registry and then we can utilize that information."
To register your automated external defibrillator (AED), visit nationalAEDregistry.com.
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