New AEDs are coming to the Perry County Courthouse

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Perry County Courthouse will soon have three new automated external defibrillators for emergency preparedness.

Automated external defibrillators (AED) are devices that can be used in a medical emergency when a person’s heart has stopped beating. The courthouse will have the latest versions of these devices on each floor so that county residents can be prepared for an emergency when every second counts.

“…if you’re waiting for an ambulance, if you have a heart attack and your heart stops and you’re waiting for an ambulance, sometimes that might be three, four, five minutes or more. So if somebody’s local and has a defibulator, they’re right there, they can be used and they’re, anybody can use them,” said Perry County Commissioner Ben Carpenter. “You start them up and it starts talking to you and it walks you through the step by step process of exactly what ot do. So you do not have to have any knowledge on how to use it. It will walk you through the steps.”

These AEDs are also GPS-enabled, which means a 911 operator can help you locate the nearest AED during a crisis. The county has been able to afford these new devices thanks to the national opioid settlement funds that pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors have paid for their role in the opioid epidemic.

“They are fairly expensive. So they’re rented, but after a set number of years, basically, we own them if they’re still functional,” Carpenter said. “So we’re going to try to rent to, renting those all but they’re kind of pricey. But we’re happy to use this opioid money so it’s not taking any money out of our general fund.”

The Perry County Commissioners invite county residents to attend public comment sessions on the third Wednesday of every month at 8:30 a.m. Those sessions allow people to comment on any topic they feel the commissioners should hear.