New equipment and training provided to King County Sheriff’s deputies could mean the difference between life or death for residents facing a cardiac arrest emergency.

King County Emergency Medical Services, a division of Public Health — Seattle and King County, will distribute 53 Automated External Defibrillators to deputies interested in the training.

Those deputies can be dispatched to a cardiac arrest call along with emergency medical responders.

Equipped deputies who arrive first to the scene of a cardiac arrest will be trained to start resuscitation and deliver the first defibrillator shocks. As soon as emergency medical responders arrive on the scene, they will take over resuscitation duties.

“Training and equipping sheriff deputies with external defibrillators is a great service for all residents in King County and will definitely save lives,” said Dr. Mickey Eisenberg, the Medical Director for King County Emergency Medical Services, in a statement. “Rapid defibrillation can literally snatch the life from the jaws of death.”

Fifteen deputies have already been trained and equipped with the AEDs.  The remainder of the AEDs will be assigned over the next few months as deputies receive training.

“This is a voluntary initiative and all deputies receiving an AED have expressed their interest in participating in this life-saving program,” said King County Sheriff’s Captain Bryan Howard, emergency services coordinator for the sheriff’s office.

Public Health provided the funding for 49 of the AEDs.

EMS levy funding is available for projects related to training for King County and a region-wide municipal workforce, as well as providing AEDs for King County facilities and vehicles.

“Our sheriff’s deputies often arrive first at the scene of an emergency, and they are already trained to save lives,” said King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, chair of the county’s Security Oversight Committee. “These AEDs are important tools to have available in the field so we can get help quickly to where it is needed. Recent placement of AEDs in the King County Courthouse already has saved at least one life, and now we can expand this capability throughout the community.”