Ron Nash, owner of the Wendy’s restaurant 50 International Drive South, in Mount Olive, presented Police Chief Edward Katona with a new Defibtech Lifeline AED at Police Headquarters. Ron Muench, Vice President of LifeSavers, Inc., the supplier of the instrument, provided instruction and a demonstration for several officers gathered in the department’s training room.

During the presentation, Nash related a story of hearing of a child in another community, struck by lightning and couldn’t be helped by responding police officers, for lack of a defibrillator. He said that the story caused him to think of the emergency services here in Mount Olive and wanting to make sure that a similar situation did not occur here. This prompted him to seek out Chief Katona and donate a new defibrillator for use by responding patrol officers.

Although the Mount Olive Police Department was one of the earlier departments in Morris County to equip its patrol cars with AEDs, the number of units available to officers has not increased over the past few years, which leaves one or two patrol cars, per shift, without them. Nash said that he was happy to be able to do something to reverse that trend.

Chief of Police Edward Katona expressed the department’s appreciation and remarked that he was happy to see that the newer unit is appropriate for use with pediatric patients, whereas the older ones are not. He plans to have the new unit put into service almost immediately. “Since introducing the devices to our operation a few years ago, the number of people saved during heart attack calls has greatly increased. Most of our officers don’t know what we did before we had AEDs and could only perform CPR until paramedics arrived. I’m glad that Ron Nash and Wendy’s are here to help us help Mount Olive.”

Officer Phil Ryan, Ron Nash (Wendy’s) and Chief Edward Katona.

Ron Nash presenting Chief Edward Katona with a new automatic defibrillator.

	Rod Muench of Life Savers, Inc. and Officer Phil Ryan going over the workings of department’s newest AED, donated by Ron Nash of Wendy’s