State Sharon, grants HEARTSafe award

SHARON — Sharon is now one of 92 Connecticut communities, out of a total of 169, to have earned the HEARTSafe designation from the state Department of Public Health.Michele Connelly, the state’s regional EMS coordinator and HEARTSafe Coordinator, presented the designation in a ceremony at Town Hall on Jan. 30. On hand to accept the award were Betsy Hall, a 35-year member of the Sharon Ambulance Squad; Jamie Casey, chief of the ambulance squad; and Tod Anderson, EMT and assistant chief of the Sharon Fire Department.In addition to the certificate, Connelly presented the town with a number of signs that will be posted around town identifying Sharon as a HEARTSafe community.Sharon became eligible to receive the HEARTSafe designation when it installed six new AED (automated external defibrillator) devices around the town. There are also several older AEDs that now need to be updated or replaced.To accomplish this, the Sharon Ambulance Squad placed AED-shaped boxes in the community requesting each Sharon resident donate $1. To the surprise of the squad, instead of collecting about $3,000, as had been hoped, there was more than $12,000 in the collection boxes.Casey said that, “The ambulance squad members want to thank the Sharon residents for their generous and continuing support.”Another important factor in qualifying for the designation is that more than 100 town residents who are not on the ambulance squad have been trained to use the AEDs and administer CPR.“Sharon Ambulance Squad members, who are trained in CPR and in using AEDs, work at four of the AED locations around town, so a trained medical professional is on premises,” Casey noted.Connelly said, “There is a clear need for the HEARTSafe program. Only 13 percent of Connecticut adults know all the warning signs of a heart attack.” These include: recurring chest discomfort or pain; pain in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach; shortness of breath; and other symptoms that may include breaking out in a sweat, nausea or light-headedness.“Educating the public to recognize cardiac events will save lives by providing prompt emergency response and care,” she said.The HEARTSafe designation is valid for three years.To learn the new modified form of CPR and how to use an AED, call David Cadwell, EMS coordinator at Sharon Hospital, at 860-364-4665.