Our neighborhood organized and runs its voluntary program with neighbors trained by fire department. It coordinates with 911 dispatchers and an outside contractor handles dispatch of neighbor-responders. There are costs involved in the dispatch service and there are costs of maintaining the AED machines, batteries, etc.
It's well worth it to raise money voluntarily as a group to do this. Fire dept. paramedics can easily be out on other calls when your neighbor has a cardiac arrest, and a neighbor responder can be at his/her house in 2 minutes, and it might take much longer for ambulance to arrive.
Best testimonial of AED training and equipment on hand is this, reported in the newer online Villages dot com newspaper, titled "Villages Public Safety Captain works ‘Sunday miracle’ at church".
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