Life-saving defibrillators are advantageous, according to Montana law enforcement

Columbus, Montana – AEDs, also known as automatic external defibrillators, are life-saving tools. One was utilized in April by Stillwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Daylon Richard to save the life of a Park City man, age 50.

“I’ll definitely remember this for probably my entire career,” Richard said on Tuesday outside of the Stillwater County Courthouse.

Around 9 p.m. on April 10, Richard arrived to a medical emergency call and discovered the man’s wife waiting for assistance.

“Ran into her master bedroom, she was in the bathroom,” Richard said.

When Richard entered the room, she had already started performing CPR.

“He was unconscious, and the AED announced that I needed to shock him, and so I had to a couple times,” said Richard.

The man was startled back to awareness by the pulses, and ever then he has fully recovered.

“If I wasn’t there and did the actions I did as soon as I did, he wouldn’t have been alive,” Richard said.

The Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office would not have been able to use the 16 AEDs they currently have if this had occurred a few years earlier.

“It basically just comes off from a grant from a tragedy. They pushed it out throughout the state of Montana, wanting to get AEDs out to people who can get there quick, fast, and in a hurry,” said Stillwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Cactus Anderson, the head of the department’s AED program.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust gave 2,200 gadgets to first responders and law enforcement in Montana in 2019.

“That to me is what’s highly impressive, is the fact that this grant is able to push it out to all these rural areas where it’s highly needed,” Anderson said.

“Every minute that goes by, the more damage is being done to the body that’s irreparable. So, it’s truly a matter of quick response in that stuff,” said Columbus Fire Rescue Chief Rich Cowger.

Richard received recognition from the sheriff’s office for his efforts to save lives, and he’ll never forget it.

“We deal with a lot of pain and suffering in this job sometimes. And just knowing I could do something that helps his family. That he can live another day to see his daughter and his wife,” Richard said.