Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Free Defibrillators Available for Small Businesses in Staten Island

By Nicholas Rizzi | November 16, 2016 5:09pm
 Borough President James Oddo started a new program to give free defibrillators to small businesses around Staten Island.
Borough President James Oddo started a new program to give free defibrillators to small businesses around Staten Island.
View Full Caption
Pieter Beens/Shutterstock.com

STATEN ISLAND — Small businesses around Staten Island can get a free life-saving defibrillator under a new program by Borough President James Oddo.

The new "Heart Project" program will offer 20 free automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to businesses around the borough who get training on the machines, Oddo announced Wednesday.

"We have to put these life-saving devices where people congregate," Oddo said, according to video of his announcement. "The machine is the difference between life and death."

Businesses who have 25 employees or fewer can get training and apply online to get one of the AEDs, which re-establishes normal heart contractions after a cardiac arrest. The machines will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, Oddo said.

The program will also work with businesses to help lessen the cost of training on the machines. Training options include classes through the American Red Cross from $85.

"We want to get as many out into the Staten Island small business community as possible," said Oddo. "We want Staten Islanders to be ready if and when one of our neighbors goes into sudden cardiac arrest."

Oddo partnered with the Staten Island Heart Society to develop the program and gave the program's first AED to Rab's Country Lanes in Dongan Hills.

If demand is high, Oddo said he'd work on buying more of the machines and eventually working with the city to secure additional funding for the program.

Aside from Oddo's program, other Staten Island lawmakers have made a push to increase the amount of AEDs around the city.

A law passed in May introduced by Council Members Steven Matteo and Corey Johnson that requires the city to provide free AEDs to youth baseball teams playing on city-owned fields.

Last month, Matteo, Johnson and Councilman Stephen Levin passed a new bill to expand the law and cover youth softball games.

Oddo has also been pushing the city to start a pilot program in the borough for a new app, Pulse Point, that sends notifications to users trained in CPR when 911 is called for a cardiac arrest nearby.