Some Cass County sheriff's squad cars outfitted with defibrillators

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

May 11, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Several Cass County deputy sheriffs will be armed with a new tool when responding to medical emergencies, according to Cass County Sheriff Jim Dowson.

Two weeks ago, six county squad cars were outfitted with automated defibrillators -- a machine that stops defibrillation of the heart by using electric current -- as part of a statewide project funded by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

"The key is to get the defibrillators to the patient as quickly as possible," Dowson said in a phone interview Monday. "And, in rural Minnesota, that can be difficult."

Dowson said the program is an example of the trend nationwide of law enforcement agencies sharing the duties of providing life-saving resuscitation to people. Increasingly, officers are sharing the duties with firefighters and ambulance crews.

The Department of Public Safety picked up the tab for all six defibrillators -- with each costing about $4,000 -- and they also paid for the training, according to Dowson.

The machines were put into the squad cars of deputies Sgt. Tom Burch, Mike Passig, Todd Swetjewski, Gary Sampson, Bert Woodford and Sandi Vanvickle, who all have completed training under the guidance of the Duluth Clinic in Deer River.

Dowson said being machines were only available for about one-fourth of the county's cars, they strategically placed them in cars all across the county.

But, he added, that the statewide project was so popular, the Department of Public Safety is lobbying for more funds to provide more units. Hopefully, Dowson said, if the agency receives more funding, the rest of the county's vehicles can be equipped with defibrillators.

"There was more of a response to the program than (the Department of Public Safety) thought there would be," he said.

Being each Cass County deputy is licensed as a medical first responder, Dowson said the defibrillators will enhance the efforts of officers responding to medical emergencies.

"If they are closer to the scene (than an ambulance crew), especially in a heart case," he added, "they may save a life."

In addition, he said, "With 500 or so lakes in our county, there's always a possibility of a drowning too."

The Department of Public Safety program, Dowson said, was patterned after a project funded by the Mayo Foundation in Olmstead County, which was highly successful.