police officers are not just the first line of defense when it comes to dealing with crime fear and disorder they are frequently the first response unit when somebody is in dire need of immediate medical attention our holiday wish this year is to see if we can get automatic defibrillators in all 250 of our marked patrol units aeds are life savers now i'm grateful to our valued corporate and private citizen partners who are helping the residents of this city by giving them the gift of life this holiday season today we're here to thank milwaukee law firm hupey and abraham and the family of attorney michael huppy for their donation of five aeds for our use in the milwaukee police department's squad cars it is our first donation and we want to thank you personally mike our mission is to prevent the loss of life we are often the first responders in medical emergencies and our ability to take life-saving action is imperative now we've spent considerable time with the milwaukee fire department discussing this important issue and seeking their advice we've also met with the medical college of wisconsin physicians and our own training staff at the police academy to develop a plan to place aeds in our police cars mpd currently uses the phillips heart start aed but we will certainly accept any aed as they all work together in our complementary systems in november at our merit awards ceremony i had the privilege of recognizing five officers specifically for their life-saving efforts particularly in incidents involving cardiac arrest three of those officers are here today with us to tell you that defibrillators in squad cars can make that kind of help available when it's most needed on june 1st 2009 police officers david bublitz michael driscoll and zachary toms performed cpr on a woman who had collapsed and suffered a heart attack during a disturbance at a home they saved her life and they're well aware of the benefits of having defibrillators readily available to officers as they go about their duties this time i'd like to call to the podium officers bublets and driscoll to discuss that issue just talk about what happened okay thank you we uh we responded for a disturbance that was in the street that was completely unrelated to what turned out to be a medical emergency not knowing what that medical emergency was we knew that it was it was very serious we were dealing with one problem and a woman basically collapsed on a porch it was immediately apparent to us that we had to rise to a level a level to uh use our first responder training we began doing cpr we did have the aid of a mask she was not breathing and we could feel her pulse going down very weak very rapidly we contacted the fire department immediately two of us did cpr for several minutes until the fire department arrived to begin their assessment and then immediately they ran and got an aed and began treatment with the shock treatment eventually saving her life i believe that we if we had this aed available we could have prevented any further maybe further damage and stabilized her much sooner than then we were able to i'm glad she's alive i'm glad we were able to save her life i believe this is a great asset for our department to have at our disposal so i'd like to thank everyone for donating again now those interested in learning more about donating aeds to the police department can contact the milwaukee police department or at the greater milwaukee foundation their number is 414-336-7068 this time i'd like to call to the podium attorney mike cupe whose uh generous donation has made this uh this uh equipment available to us mike thank you chief i want to take a minute to thank you for giving huppy and abraham another opportunity to contribute to our community at huppy and abraham we are consumer advocates we have rewards pending in murder cases in milwaukee now we sponsored a motorcycle awareness program this year and with vicky san filippo we helped train over 15 000 bikers on what to do before an ambulance arrives in the case of an accident today he'll be in abraham is donating the first three aeds to this program and my family with my son rex at my side is donating another two my law firm will also donate one aed every month in 2010 until individuals or businesses including our law firm donate another 12 to this worthwhile program our website is hupey.com and we will have an article about the efforts of chief flynn and the police department to have an aed in all 250 squad cars in milwaukee we urge businesses and individuals who can afford to do so to contribute to this program because we know sooner or later what you do is going to save a life thank you thanks mike we also have with us dr john steck a physician who donated his time to work as a medical advisor to our dive rescue unit as a doctor he certainly knows the value of this advice dr steck thank you chief uh i'd like to really thank the chief for being proactive in getting this device available uh in sudden cardiac arrest it's really time is of the essence it's the most important thing and the one thing that has been proven is defibrillation uh if you think of the chain of survival when you have a cardiac arrest it's the bystander who initiates cpr and then the defibrillator and then you know the fire department with the paramedics under the er and the intensive care unit but the lynch pin is the defibrillator and i can't say enough how important that is getting these in the squad cars and also for the safety of our own officers thank you thanks doctor um certainly we want to make it clear that uh it's our belief that nobody's better at paramedicine than the milwaukee fire department i think their record is long extensive and very impressive when it comes to saving lives but what we're trying to do when we did this in consultation with the fire department is to recognize that sometimes incidents occur immediately in the presence of a police officer with an otherwise fully equipped squad and if we can add to that equipment in aed we're going to have one more layer of protection for the average citizen and extremists than we currently have and certainly be in a better position to stabilize that patient until such times the fire department gets there and is capable of transporting that person to the hospital so having said all that uh we're certainly open it to a few questions and then we'll give you an opportunity to get closer to the equipment and see for yourselves and perhaps ask some questions of yourselves directly of some of our speakers