VanNatta Public Relation’s building, located at 3340 Commercial ST SE, is one of Salem’s newest locations for an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator). The AED was installed by Willy Giddings, EMT-P of the Salem Fire Department. Mary Louise VanNatta, who serves as the volunteer Executive Director of the Salem Fire Foundation (SFF), received the AED as a thank you for her service to the foundation.
VanNatta explains that the AED grant program is one of the major strategic directions of the foundation. “We know that AED’s save lives when used appropriately on victims of cardiac arrests and getting them strategically placed around the community is critical,” she said.
Since the SFF was founded it has placed 63 AED’s in City of Salem Police cars and 33 around the community through its grant and purchase program.
Citizens can locate AED’s using the PulsePoint App and can use the setting that alerts them if there is a cardiac incident in their area.
VanNatta adds, “We know of one citizen who was saved when an off-duty EMT was alerted to an incident in his area and was able to get to the person before the emergency medical professionals thanks to notifications from PulsePoint.”
