News & Events

MNA Region 3 unveils AEDs for Life program

From the Massachusetts Nurse Newsletter
January 2009 Edition

The MNA’s Regional Council 3 was happy to kick off its new “AEDs for Life” program with a $500 donation to Martha’s Vineyard VFW Post 9261—a donation that put the organization over the top in its fund raising efforts.

     
   
  MNA member Rick Lambos, center, presents the Martha’s Vineyard VFW with a check for an AED.  
     

The new program was started by the MNA to help purchase AEDs for nonprofit organizations with 25 or more members. It was initiated after an event at the Vineyard’s VFW Post last summer when a patron suffered cardiac arrest. It was the third time that such an event had occurred at the post, and the VFW leadership felt that it was time to have an AED on site. They purchased an AED and started a fund raising drive to offset the cost.

Rick Lambos—an ER staff nurse, MNA bargaining unit chairman at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, MNA Board member and MNA Regional Council 3 treasurer—was at the VFW Post on that terrible day last summer and he assisted with the resuscitation. When he found out the post was raising money for an AED, he thought that the MNA might be able to help.

He brought his idea to MNA’s Regional Council 3, which is made up about 4,700 members from across Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands, and he secured approval to move ahead. Lambos then went one step further and moved to involve the rest of the MNA Regions from across the state. Currently, three of the other four Regions in the state are participating in the program.

“It is a documented fact that early intervention with CPR and/or electrical defibrillation increases a cardiac arrest victim’s survival rate dramatically, and that is why nurses across the state wanted to participate in this effort,” said Lambos. “The MNA, which is the state’s leading professional nurses association and labor organization, is honored to be involved in this community health effort.”

If you know of a nonprofit organization that could benefit from this program, contact your local Regional office and request to have an application and related criteria sent via mail, email, or fax.

 

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