A downtown drop-in center is that much more equipped to save the lives of clients in cardiac arrest — now that a Guilford-based medical-technology company has donated a new “easy-to-use” defibrillator.  That donation was celebrated Thursday morning during a press conference held at the Do wntown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) at 266 State St. DESK has a volunteer base of nearly 2,800 people. The nonprofit provides unhoused New Haveners with hot meals, harm-reduction services, connections to temporary housing, and on-site healthcare through Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, which runs a clinic out of DESK’s State Street hub. Among those gathered on Thursday morning to thank the company Defibtech for its donation and to mark National CPR Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Awareness Week were DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin, DESK Board of Directors Vice President Dr. Caitlyn Ryus, city Health Director Maritza Bond, Hill Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Coutrie, and Defibtech CEO A.J. Pace. A defibrillator can be used to send an electric shock to the heart to correct fatal heart rhythms.  Bond said that many people lack access to life-saving AEDs, as those dfefices are often not available in corporate settings or airports. “We’re not seeing them in community spaces” enough, she said. DESK already had one defibrillator prior to Thursday’s donation. One is not enough for a building with four floors and another space next door, according to DESK Director of Client Engagement and Quality Assurance Evan Serio.  Serio said he has not yet had to use an AED at DESK’s State Street location, he remembers once having to perform CPR on a client for 15 minutes. The new defibrillator will go on the third floor near the Hill Health clinic. “Our staff are the responders before the first responders are able to arrive,” said Werlin, “so they have to be there for those critical moments that are really life-saving.” Werlin said that a year and a half ago, DESK had 159 people on the shelter waitlist, and a list of another 688 people who had been identified as unhoused in New Haven. As of about a month ago, there are now 1,073 people on the shelter waitlist and another 1,677 unhoused people in the city — a “shocking” increase, Werlin said. A third of the 1,379 people DESK has served this year have been seniors, who are most vulnerable to cardiac arrest.  As part of Thursday’s event, Defibtech Community Relations Manager Mike Papale performed an AED demonstration using a human patient simulator. Mike Papale demonstrates how to use a defibrillator: “If you’re not a medical professional, all you have to remember is hit the green ‘on’ button.” One need not be a medical expert to perform life-saving measures with an AED, Papale emphasized: “You cannot hurt somebody with this machine.” In the press release for Thursday’s event, Bond urged other groups to evaluate their emergency preparedness: “I ask every business and organization in this city: are the people you serve protected? Learning CPR, keeping an AED nearby, and knowing how to use it saves lives.” The post DESK Receives Life-Saving Donation appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less