Project Heart ReStart gives 50 AEDs to police departments

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Project Heart ReStart donated 50 AEDs to local police departments in an effort to save victims of cardiac arrests and heart attacks.

An AED - automated external defibrillator - along with CPR improves a heart attack victim’s survival by 50 to 75 percent.

The Cincinnati Police Department received 26 units on Wednesday. Mark Johnston, the Christ Hospital EMS Coordinator, said the devices are remarkable life savers. He said he hopes to have 50 AEDs in police cruisers over the next two years in other Hamilton County departments.

“Our goal is that every department in Hamilton County, one, two three officers on every shift are going to have these with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Johnston said.

The idea of placing AEDs in police cruises came from The Rotary Club of Cincinnati following Damar Hamlin’s collapse during a Buffalo Bills vs. Cincinnati Bengals game last year.

“I was there at that game on Monday Night Football,” Steve King, a past president of The Rotary Club, said. “We saw firsthand how an AED, just like the model behind me, saved his life in the hands of a first responder.”

In Nov. 2023, Project Heart ReStart paid for 130 AEDs to be installed in Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office cruisers. The project is now expanding to include other departments.

According to The Rotary Club, another 50 AEDs are needed for other departments in the county.

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