UConn Health’s campus is equipped with nearly three-dozen new Automated-External Defibrillators (AEDs) in common areas of its buildings and facilities.

“We have 30 AEDs along with Stop the Bleed kits placed throughout UConn Health,” said William Perez EdD, fire chief and associate director of Public Safety at UConn. “Survival of cardiac arrest events nearly doubles with bystander AED access and CPR. These AED devices being easily accessible by the community is critical to saving more lives.”

AED devices, which administer an electric shock through the chest wall to the heart, are proven to improve the chances for individuals to survive a sudden cardiac arrest. UConn Health’s AED initiative is part of the university-wide public access AED program in collaboration with the student organization UConn Rescue interested in emergency medical services (EMS) training. By December 2020, over 350 AEDs and Stop the Bleed kits, which include a tourniquet, wound dressing, and shears to stop bleeding during an emergency, are expected to be placed across the University.

“The UConn Health public access AED and Stop the Bleed kit program is transformative for UConn Health and makes everyone safer,” shared Dr. Andy Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health.

Whether you are a UConn Health patient, visitor, employee, contractor, staffer or student you can now easily access an AED or Stop the Bleed Kit at any time should an emergency situation arise.

Download the free PulsePoint AED App to your cell phone to have at your fingertips the the geographic locations of all 30 AEDs accessible on UConn Health’s campus and to be more prepared should a lifesaving opportunity strike. The app also shares the locations of all AEDs across the University of Connecticut’s campuses. Additionally, a UConn Public Safety dispatcher can be reached 24/7 to advise you on the closest AED to your location during an emergency.

“Please join UConn Fire in our mission to save lives,” Chief Perez says. “Thanks to everyone on the UConn Health campus for doing their part should a public health emergency arise to use a nearby AED or a Stop the Bleed kit. Thank you for being part of the UConn Nation of First Responders.”

Readily available for the public and members of the UConn Health community on the UConn Fire website are short instructional how-to training videos for proper use of AED and Stop the Bleed kits, and other informative online resources including about CPR. The instructional videos demonstrate how to use the AEDs in an easy to follow, step-by-step method, featuring UConn students, staff, and faculty in action. As each AED location also contains a Stop the Bleed kit, the videos also demonstrate how to manage an uncontrolled bleeding emergency using the materials provided. The training videos, released in February, are part of UConn Fire’s lifesaving focused video campaign in partnership with UConn Rescue.

Perez adds: “I would like to thank Deputy Fire Chief Renshaw, Captain Prendergast, Lieutenant Roper, and a special thanks to UConn Health’s administration and its Campus Planning team who all helped make this AED project come to fruition.”

Last year, UConn was officially named a “HEARTSafe Campus” by the Connecticut Department of Health and its Office of Emergency Medical Services, in collaboration with the American Heart Association– the first institution of higher education in the state of Connecticut to earn the designation.

As a medical center campus, UConn Health hopes to pursue its own HEARTSafe Campus designation this fall.

UConn Health Campus – AED Locations