Cardiac arrest survival rates are lower in rural communities than in urban areas. South Dakota ambulance responses could range from a few minutes to more than 30 minutes. Many factors affect an individual’s chance of survival from an event, including the involvement of bystanders and their ability to perform immediate interventions. Additionally, rural communities often have much lower availability and access to AEDs.

A big part of making communities more livable is ensuring that where you live doesn’t determine if you survive a cardiac emergency. One way to help strengthen the chain of survival for rural South Dakotans is to place additional AEDs throughout communities and train citizens in the lifesaving skill of CPR.

Here’s how DeSmet and Kinsbury County addressed this problem and found a great solution: https://extension.sdstate.edu/news/de-smet-community-organizations-receive-aeds-and-cpr-training.