Mackenzie Parson, a student at McNairy County High School raised $14,000 for her senior local-community project – Every Second Matters.

The funds will provide eight or more Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) for schools in McNairy County.

A resident of Selmer, Mackenzie raised the money through T-shirt sales, car washes and local contributions.

Upon hearing of the need, MASTER MEDICAL EQUIPMENT (MME) of Jackson is partnering with Mackenzie in an effort to provide AEDs for the schools.

To help support this project, MME donated one Zoll AED+ defibrillator and ReNew Biomedical (ReNewbiomedical.com) has offered free service and preventative maintenance on all donated AEDs.

MASTER MEDICAL EQUIPMENT is a supplier of professional medical equipment for hospitals, clinics, EMTs, veterinary and educational facilities throughout the United States – and beyond.

AEDs are viewed as a very important part of the total response to sudden cardiac arrest in the community.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death in the United States and it claims approximately 365,000 lives in North America each year.

Most commonly, this sudden cardiac arrest, or stoppage of the heart, occurs because of an electrical event.

Automatic External Defibrillators in the community allow bystanders to deliver a shock to a patient’s heart quickly while others proceed to contact and/or direct medical professionals to the scene.

Survival is directly linked to the time interval between the SCA and the first AED shock delivered to the victim. Statistics validate that when a shock is delivered within one minute, survival rates can increase 17 fold from five percent (by relying on EMS only to respond) to levels as high as 86 percent in some cases.

(PHOTO: Courtesy Jill Taylor – From left – Chris Whitten, Mark Taylor, Mackenzie Parson, Tina Parson, Amy Whitten)

David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomasWNWS
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