Borough Holds Dedication Ceremony for AED Donation by The Aliver Foundation
The borough held a dedication ceremony Wednesday for the donation of an automated external defibrillator for La Grande Park. The AED was donated to the Fanwood by The Aliver Foundation, founded by Jill Pall, a sudden cardiac arrest survivor.
The all-weather, climate controlled, tamper AED enclosure and device is located on the exterior of the La Grande Park building. Following remarks by Pall and Mayor Colleen Mahr, a demonstration of CPR and the AED was done by members of the Fanwood Rescue Squad with members of the public taking turns trying CPR on a demonstration mannequin.
Mayor Mahr called the AED donation “a really important moment for Fanwood when it comes to being able to provide an outdoor AED.” The said The Aliver Foundation “has one simple goal, which is to save lives by increasing the number of outdoor all-weather AEDs.”
Borough Council members Gina Berry and Jeff Banks attended the dedication ceremony.
Chico Resch, former goalie for the New Jersey Devils, was one an invited guest and tried CPR himself.
Pall said she had cardiac arrest on June 25, 2021 at Echo Lake Dog Park. She was with group of people and someone called 9-1-1, while one of her friends started CPR on her.
She said cardiac arrest has an 80 percent survival rate, noting that cardiac arrest ‘is an electrical issue with the heart, it is not a heart attack.” She said a heart attack is a circulation issue and has a survival rate of 85 percent, “but a heart attack can turn into cardiac arrest or when you’re recovering from a heart attack.”
Seven out 10 cardiac arrests occur at home, Pall said, noting the importance of learning CPR, but making sure to 9-1-1 first.
“For every minute that you don’t have an AED your survival rate goes down by 10 percent,” she said. “The issue with Echo Lake Park and all the parks in Union County currently is none of them have AEDS.”
After advocating for the past few years for the county to get AEDS for their parks including Echo Lake Park, Pall said the county received a grant in February to be used to purchase 80 AEDS to be installed at all 36 parks in Union County. She each county park will have between one and five AEDs.
