Saugatuck-Douglas

HEARTSafe Community

You Can Save a Life. Right Here. Right Now.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 436,000 cardiac arrest deaths occur each year in the U.S.

Learn CPR.

Know where the AEDs are.

Join the HeartSAFE mission.

What Is a HEARTSafe Community?

Becoming a HEARTSafe Community means establishing proactive steps to protect your residents from sudden cardiac arrest. Our community-based quality improvement model focuses on the importance of leadership, collaboration, strategy and tactics in improving cardiac arrest survival in the community through the systematic implementation of 13 specific recommendations or process measures that are based on current science and innovative best practices.

You Could Be the Reason Someone Survives.

❤️ Support a Community That Saves Lives❤️ 

Every dollar helps place more AEDs, train more neighbors, and save more lives.
Cardiac arrest doesn’t wait. But with your help, we can make sure our beaches, parks, schools, and streets are ready when every second counts.

✅ $50 trains a neighbor in hands-only CPR
✅ $100 helps maintain our AED network
✅ $1,500 places a new AED in a high-traffic location

Why Training?

Having a friend of family member with a medical emergency can be a scary situation.

Learning CPR is one of the best ways to help them during a cardiac arrest.

But you don’t need to know someone to make a huge difference in their life! Complete strangers can work together through CPR to help a cardiac arrest victim.

Purpose

The single most important objective of HEARTSafe is to save the lives of those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest whose life status may depend on early intervention CPR and AED use. 

What is chest compression-only CPR?

  • Chest compression-only CPR is a new method of resuscitation.

  • Continuous, forceful chest compressions circulate the person’s blood to their brain and heart.

  • Rescue breathing isn’t necessary because during a primary cardiac arrest the lungs are full of air, the blood is full of oxygen, and circulating the oxygenated blood is the key.

Why use AEDs?

  • An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart to change the heart’s rhythm back to normal.

  • AEDs help people who have a sudden cardiac arrest, which occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating regularly.

  • AEDs are intended for use by the public and, when combined with CPR, provide the best chance of saving a life.