Project Heart ReStart, an outreach program that aims to increase AED access, is looking to extend its reach from Hamilton County in Ohio, where most of its work currently takes place, to Northern Kentucky.
“We want by December 2024 to make Boone, Kenton and Campbell the first heart-ready counties in Kentucky,” Josh Vogel, a Silver Grove native and member of the Cincinnati Rotary Club, told the Independence City Council on Monday.
Project Heart ReStart began as an initiative through Christ Hospital in Cincinnati in 2006, but Vogel pointed to Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest at a Cincinnati Bengals game in 2023 as the event that brought the issue into the public consciousness.
AED is short for automated external defibrillator, a portable device capable of delivering an electric shock to someone undergoing cardiac arrest.
Hamlin eventually recovered, but others, including some in the NKY region, have not been so lucky. For example, 16-year-old Matthew Mangine Jr., a student at St. Henry District High School in Erlanger, suffered cardiac arrest during soccer practice in 2020. AEDs were actually available nearby, but they weren’t used until EMS arrived 12 minutes later. Mangine died in the hospital, and his parents later started a foundation in his honor.
In a similar story, 18-year-old Cameron Batson collapsed during a pickup soccer game in Kenton County in 2010 after suffering from cardiac arrest due to an undiagnosed heart condition.
Vogel even had direct experience with the issue. In 2003, Vogel and his friend Justin Saccone were playing baseball at Pendery Park in Campbell County. Vogel was pitching and Saccone was batting. Vogel threw a curve ball, which struck Saccone in the chest, disrupting his heart rhythm.
Neither the facilities near the field nor the police who showed up before the ambulance had an AED. By the time the ambulance arrived about 12 minutes later, it was too late; Saccone died.
Saccone’s father attended Monday’s meeting.
“Justin was really never given a chance,” Vogel said.
He gave some figures attesting to the scope of the problem.
“There’s about 350,000 cardiac arrests that occur annually outside of the hospital,” Vogel said. “And every minute that an AED is not used, the survival rate goes down 7% to 10%.”
As such, Vogel said, “the rule of thumb is less than five to stay alive.”
Public interest in the issue grew following Hamlin’s injury. For example, a law was passed in 2023 with the help of advocacy from the Mangine family requiring AEDs in Kentucky schools. Vogel said that after Hamlin’s injury, Project Heart ReStart began looking for ways to get AEDs into police cruisers as police frequently arrived at emergency scenes before ambulances.
Thus, the project and its community partners began fundraising. As of Monday’s meeting, the project was only about $14,000 short of its Hamilton County goal, and Vogel said that by the fall, Hamilton County will be the first so-called heart-ready county in the United States: every patrol car in the county will have access to an AED.
NKY is next.
Vogel said they plan on making a large announcement in September to kickoff fundraising in earnest. The plan is to have Boone, Kenton and Campbell heart-ready by December.
“I suspect everybody up here thinks it’s a great idea,” Mayor Chris Reinersman said, referencing the council and city staff at the meeting.
In spite of the goal of having one AED in every car, Vogel admitted that, especially now, it wasn’t realistic for some departments to put one in every single cruiser. Instead, they may swap units into designated vehicles for each patrol shift.
Reinersman said that the city had enough money in the budget for about four, which would be enough for supervisors on shift.
“I think our max is about nine officers at a time,” said Assistant Police Chief Jake Boyle. “The immediate need would be, I would say, eight and then possibly nine to 10, moving forward.”
“It’s always helpful when there’s a community organization that’s able to help us achieve that goal quicker than we might be able to do on our own,” Reinersman said.
