One high school student in Maynard has gifted five life-saving devices to the town.
Siena Hesbach worked in tandem with Zoll Medical and the Maynard Fire Department to help widen access to AEDs in town.
“An AED is an automatic external defibrillator which can be used to help someone who comes down with sudden cardiac arrest,” Hesbach said.
Hesbach spent the last year and a half helping to bring five new AEDs to Maynard.
“It took her a lot of effort to get the approvals to get it done, as well as raised all the funds,” Mayard Fire Chief Angela Lawless said. “Which was somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000,” Mayard Fire Chief Angela Lawless said.
Experts say sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death among young athletes and as an athlete herself, it was important for Siena to make sure there’s more access to life-saving care.
Three of the AEDs can now be found on soccer fields in town, and the other two in Memorial Park and at Ice House Landing.
“As an athlete, sudden cardiac arrest can happen in anyone,” Hesbach said. “Whether you’re hit by someone or something at the wrong time or wrong moment and having care for everyone, even not athletes is very important to me,” Hesbach said.
The goal was to better the community with something sustainable.
Siena’s efforts were for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project, which is the highest award available in Girl Scouting.
“It’s available to high school seniors who seek out a problem in their community, and they come up with a sustainable project to address that issue, and this is a perfect example of that in action,” Lara Chadwell with Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts said.
The AED will give you step-by-step instructions and monitor your actions while you help to save a life before first responders arrive.
“They’re going to guide you like a coach and give you that real-time instruction and directive feedback to make sure you can deliver high-quality CPR,” Zoll Medical representative Blair Brown said.
“It’s analyzing the heart rhythm, and it’s going to tell us if a shock is required,” Blair explained while showing Boston 25 News how the device works.
Meanwhile, Siena said her inspiration came from time spent in the Netherlands, where she noticed AEDs were more prevalent in public.
“To have these up in public places where if anyone were to have a sudden cardiac arrest, it could be useful for them, and if anyone needed to use them, which I hope not, it’s accessible for the public,” Siena said.
She also raised enough money to set some aside to take care of the maintenance required on the devices.
