Windham to become a HEARTSafe community 

A group of Windham residents are working to make Windham a HEARTSafe community.

About 4,500 CT residents die annually due to sudden cardiac arrest. Most of these deaths occur outside of the hospital, away from advanced medical assistance and usually happen in the presence of a family member or friend.

The Windham Heart Safe Community Committee has a goal to strengthen every link in the cardiac "Chain of Survival' for the community. The Chain of Survival includes:

• Early access to emergency care
• Early CPR
• Early Defibrillation
• Early emergency care

Requirement for becoming a Heart Safe Community:

• Training programs for CPR and Automatic External Defibrillators (AED)
• Public locations for the AEDs
• AED equipped first response vehicles
• Advanced life support personned availability
• Ongoing process to evaluate and improve this Chain of Survival.

The committee is raising the $20,000 needed to purchase the equipment.

To donate, contact Dawn Niles at nilesdawn@yahoo.com or Diane Rayhall at rayhalld@aol.com.