Greene County General Hospital has partnered with Union Hospital's Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health to distribute automated external defibrillators, also known as AEDs, to 14 new locations throughout Greene County.
With high cardiac death rates, Greene County was targeted as a priority for the AEDs, which can help save a heart attack victim's life. The devices deliver an electric shock through the chest to the heart.
A federal Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant funded the AEDs. That grant also allows for free training sessions in CPR and AED use.
Congressman Larry Bucshon, R-Indiana, presented the devices Monday in the hospital's cafeteria.
"For me this is very very important because I spent my career trying to help people with heart related issues and also help promote public education as it relates to what can be done and what should be done for these people," he says.
Bucshon says that this program is especially important for rural communities that have to deal with more significant distances between hospitals.