Villager Cameron Murray is active in the lawn bowling group and thinks it would enhance safety to have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at the facility at the Rio Grande Family Pool recreation area.
Seems like a no brainer?
Not so.
Murray made the seemingly reasonable request this past week before the Amenity Authority Committee, which oversees amenities north of County Road 466 in The Villages.
“We all embrace what AEDs mean to our community,” said Recreation Director John Rohan.
There are AEDs available in recreation centers across Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
However, AEDs are not placed at “outdoor facilities” such as swimming pools, the town squares and postal stations.
Unfortunately, the AEDs have proven to be too tempting to thieves. Locking up the AEDs at outdoor facilities won’t work, Rohan said.
“Who would have the key?” he asked. “You actually open yourself up to more liability because the AED wouldn’t be immediately accessible if there was an emergency.”
Gail Lazenby, who spent many years with The Villages Public Safety Department, pointed to an incident several years ago at the Saddlebrook Softball Complex.
Someone got into the AED there and “fiddled” with it, Lazenby said. That AED, because it was not operable, failed to deliver at the critical hour.
“We even talked about placing them in the theaters, but we ran into some opposition over liability,” said Lazenby, who has retired from the public safety department where he led education efforts with regard to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AEDs.
Many neighborhoods in The Villages have raised money and launched their own AED programs.
“Those programs are great, because they are funded and operated by the residents,” Rohan said.
He said those neighborhoods have trained responders who have the key to the AEDs.
But those programs have not been immune to theft.
For example, 63 households in the Village of Palo Alto banded together and raised $6,000 to purchase two AEDs. In 2015, one of their AEDs was stolen.
District Manager Richard Baier pointed to The Villages Public Safety Department’s response time of a little more than four minutes as an impressive safety net for residents. He also noted that during major events at the town squares, there are trained personnel standing by with AEDs.
Lazenby lamented the challenges that have put a damper on the placement of AEDs in The Villages.
“I look at pictures of AEDs available in places like Europe,” he said. “Yet we can’t do it here.”
