DAN awards equipment to rescue organizations

DAN has awarded an oxygen unit and an automated external defibrillator (AED) unit through its Oxygen Grant Program and AED Matching Grant Program, respectively.

Texas EquuSearch (TES), a nonprofit volunteer organization that specializes in search, rescue and recovery in the United States and around the world, recently received a Dual Rescue Pak Extended Care valued at $669. And Winston-Salem Rescue Squad Inc. of North Carolina received a DAN FR2+ AED Kit. The equipment is valued at $2750. The Winston-Salem Rescue Squad will use the AED kit on its dive vehicle.

Based in Dickinson, Texas, TES, is the dive organization that supplied divers in Aruba during a recent search for a missing American woman. It is a nonprofit organization composed of volunteers trained in various rescue and life saving skills such as CPR, advanced lifesaving skills and field craft. Members include business owners, medics, firefighters, housewives, electricians and students.

The Winston-Salem Rescue Squad offers a variety of technical rescue services, which include vehicle extrication, high-level/low level rescue, water rescue, dive rescue and recovery, confined space/trench rescue, building collapse and land searches. Most members are certified as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and many are certified Emergency Rescue Technician (ERT) levels. The squad was one of the first rescue units certified at the N.C. Department of Insurance standard for heavy rescue.

In a dive emergency in which a diver is suffering from decompression sickness or an arterial gas embolism, the primary first aid treatment to offer is oxygen first aid. Through the Oxygen Grant Program, DAN provides emergency oxygen units to deserving departments and organizations. Oxygen grant requests are decided case by case. Training in the use of the equipment by attending a DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries course is a mandatory requirement to being considered for the grant.

Through its AED Grant Program, DAN recognizes the life-saving potential of AEDs; accordingly, the AED Matching Grant program assists individuals, businesses or organizations in the United States. Grant recipients must have a connection to diving or aquatics and demonstrate a genuine need of AED technology in the course of their normal operations.

Source: www.diversalertnetwork.org