Published in Canadian Lodging News, Nov 2012
TORONTO – Eight staff at Paese and L-eat restaurants now know how to use the three defibrillators that will be installed at Paese Restaurant on King St. W., L-eat Catering on Bathurst St. and L-eat Express on Adelaide St. W.

The defibrillators and training are part of a charitable initiative called The Mikey Network, which has installed 1,400 defibrillators in Golden Horseshoe area businesses-defibrillators which have so far saved 14 lives.

Installations include Toronto Police Service facilities, Toronto Fire Services, the Toronto District School Board’s 120 secondary schools, sports facilities in Milton, and now restaurants. Richtree has installed a Mikey defibrillator at its Bayview and York Mills location, and Golf’s Steakhouse in Waterloo Region will also be installing one.

When Tony Loschiavo, owner of Paese and L-eat added up all the people came through his age 2 of 2 restaurants each day, he arrived at a figure of 6,000 to 7,000.

“That’s a lot of people,” he said, adding that he heard about Mikey through an employee. “I thought it would be a cool idea. If you’re dealing with thousands of people each day, you can make a difference. Hopefully [a cardiac arrest] will never happen, but if it does, we’ll make it right.”

One of the defibrillators was donated to his restaurants, and Loschiavo made a donation of $2,500 each to The Mikey Network to obtain the other two. Hugh Heron, president of Heathwood homes and The Heron Group, started The Mikey Network following the heart attack death of the company’s partner and senior vice-president Mike Salem, during a game of golf ten years ago.

In 2003, The Mikey’s network was born with the goals of inspiring heart-healthy living and placing defibrillators called “Mikeys” in high risk locations. Heron says his goal is to have a Mikey everywhere there is a fire extinguisher.

“Tony is leading edge,” Heron noted. “It amazes me why every restaurant doesn’t have a defibrillator. Think of the stigma if something happened-and if you saved someone, the positive public relations and goodwill.”

Morty Henkle, executive director of The Mikey Network, says that cardiac arrest can happen anywhere to anybody of any age. Three of the people saved in the last several years were students, one was a police officer, and one was a 36-year-old who collapsed at the Toronto

Racquet Club just six days after the club purchased their Mikey defibrillator.