REACH Centre in Clinton Receives Defibrillator from the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund
by Bob Montgomery
The REACH Centre in Clinton received a defibrillator from the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund recently.
The defibrillator was presented by the Founder and Executive Director of the Dave Mounsey Memborial Fund, Patrick Armstrong. The Dave Mounsey Fund was started in 2009 in recognition of Dave Mounsey who was an OPP officer who was killed in the line of duty in 2006 in an on-duty car collision. Armstrong says Dave Mounsey was a negotiator, he was a general patrol officer, he was a volunteer fire fighter and Dave Mounsey was his coach officer.
This particular donation was named after Willian McTagart who was born and raised in Clinton and went off to fight in World War One where he served until he was killed overseas at the age of twenty-five, having earned the Distinguished Service Order and a mention in dispatch for bravery.
Armstrong says there are now between thirty and thirty-five defibrillators in Huron County and altogether they've donated 177 defibrillators. So far, six lives have been saved because of their program. Armstrong says the defibrillators are generally given to anywhere there's public access. “If we do donate to businesses we always make sure that it's a business that has a high flow of traffic, so that it's for the general public so that if something happens, a cardiac arrest or a heart attack, that device is right there to save them.”
The defibrillators are remarkably easy to use and the instructions walk people right through from the beginning to the end of the process. The survival rates can be up to seventy percent if it's applied within the first five minutes. The statistics don't lie, with six lives saved already, they know the results are there.
Armstrong adds they really appreciate the support they've been given, they're a small organization that has grown Canada-wide and for that he thanks their team, their volunteers and their supporters.
Left to right: Matt Lee - REACH Centre General Manager, Vanessa Strike - Board Vice President, Patrick Armstrong - Founder and Executive Director Dave Mounsey Fund
