The Latest Mikey Network News

Canadian Lodging News Story- Toronto Restaurant Staff Trained To Shock

mikey-aeds-in-restaurantsPublished 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.

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2012 Mikey Network Awards at the Ryerson School Of Nutrition

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2012 Mikey Network Award recipients at Ryerson School of Nutrition

Rena Mendelson with 2012 Mikey Network Award recipients Pascalyn Annoh and Teresa Chiu

Congratulations to Pascalyn Annoh and Teresa Chiu, the 2012 Mikey Network Awards recipients at  Ryerson University School of Nutrition.

The awards were presented at the 2012 School of Nutrition Awards Ceremony on  Thursday, November 15th 2012.  The Mikey Network Awards are presented annually to students in the Nutrition and Food program and were established by The Mikey Network to provide financial assistance and recognize academic excellence and a commitment to the promotion of nutrition to prevent chronic heart diseases.

Public Access Defibrillators Can Only Save Lives If People Can Find Them

locating public defibrillators

Jennifer Yuan won a prize for locating 400 of the heart devices tucked away in Philadelphia buildings.

A huge part of what we do here at The Mikey Network is placing defibrillators, MIKEYs, in public places.   Experts say that in general, odds of survival are reduced by 10% for every minute a person is collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest without cardiopulmonary resuscitation or defibrillation.  So it is not only important to place as many MIKEYs as we can, it is also important to let people know they are there.

We do this onsite, by including signage as well as custom cabinets for our MIKEY AEDs.  We do it online with a map of our MIKEY locations.

More needs to be done to identify the location of ALL public defibrillators.  Today, the Wall Street Journal published an article about an initiative in Philadelphia, PA that used crowd sourcing to identify the locations of the publicly placed AEDs throughout Philadelphia.

It’s a really smart initiative so we wanted to share this article with TEAM Mikey.  Please click the link below to read it.

This Device Saves Lives, But Can Be Hard to Find
By Ron Winslow, Wall Street Journal
A crowdsourcing project in Philadelphia has mapped hundreds of automated external defibrillators throughout the city, a potential…

 
 photo credit: Charles Fox, The Wall Street Journal




All High Risk Buildings in Kawartha Lakes Now Have an AED / PAD
MIKEY AEDs in City of Kawartha LakesOur friends at Kawartha Lakes EMS  have announced that all high risk public buildings in the City of Kawartha Lakes are now equipped with public access defibrillators (PADs). There are now 180 PADs, also known as Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs), which we call MIKEYs because it’s easier to say :).


The AEDs are  located throughout the municipality and 50 of these sites are City owned buildings.


In a press release, the City of Kawartha Lakes said the following:


November 13, 2012    For Immediate Release 


All high risk buildings now have a PAD


Kawartha Lakes EMS has announced that all high risk public buildings now have a public access defibrillators (PADs) located in them. There are 180 PADs located in the municipality with 50 of these sites located within City owned buildings.


The definition of high risk for a building or community event can be defined by three key points:


    

  1. EMS data that supports past significant 911 medical calls
    2. 

  2. 200 citizens in a building or event per day with an average age of 50 years
    3. 

  3. Barriers that slow down emergency service response (distance, locked doors, multiple floors etc.).
    4. 



Community partners are the reason for the local PAD success and Kawartha Lakes EMS would like to thank and acknowledge:


    

  • City of Kawartha Lakes Mayor Ric McGee and council as well as all the city directors and managers for embracing the program and enabling PAD placement and continued CPR training for staff
    • 

  • CKL Fire / Rescue, Kawartha Lakes Police Service and Kawartha Lakes OPP for PAD placement in offices and emergency vehicles as well as continued CPR training for staff
    • 

  • Ross Memorial Hospital for providing in-hospital defibrillation programs and continued CPR training for staff
    • 

  • Central Ambulance Communications Center for logging active PAD sites into their database and providing dispatcher assisted CPR to citizens over the phone
    • 

  • Heart and Stroke Foundation (local, provincial and national) for direction and grant funding
    • 

  • The Mikey Network for providing affordable PADs either through assistance and in some cases grants
    • 

  • St. John Ambulance (local chapter) for providing local PAD /CPR response at special events and CPR training for citizens
    • 

  • Red Cross (local chapter) who provides CPR training for citizens
    • 

  • Private site partners especially the Kawartha Lakes Schools. All schools in the City of Kawartha Lakes will have a PAD by the end of this month. Trillium Lakelands District Schools, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District Schools, and Heritage Christian School all are continuing CPR training for staff and some now have programs for the students as well
    • 



A special thank you goes to Allan Chapman (Lindsay Tim Horton stores owner) for continuing to fund and sponsor the Heart Hero Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) program for 500 grade 5 and 6 students each year. This program is directly attributed to teaching lifesaving skills to our youth who in turn teach ten adults in the skill of hands only CPR. The result is 5,000 citizens’ receiving CPR information and skills annually.


The second group that must be acknowledged is the Kawartha Lakes Real Estate Association for continuing to fundraise through an annual ball tournament that in 2012 raised enough funds to purchase four PADs for Kawartha Lakes OPP vehicles.


For further information, please contact:

Keith Kirkpatrick

EMS Chief

705-324-5731 ext. 593

kkirkpatrick@city.kawarthalakes.on.ca


The Bradford Curling Club Joins Team Mikey


Our friends at Canada’s 911 Foundation made it possible for The Mikey Network to deliver a MIKEY defibrillator to the Bradford Curling Club, in memory of York Regional Police Superintendent Mark Grant, who curled at the Bradford club.  Superintendent Grant was killed in a tragic 2-vehicle collision on October 27, 2011, in Uxbridge. He received the Governor General’s Exemplary Service Medal in 2000, and his 30 Year Service Bar in 2010.


The Mikey Network will train up to 10 people in CPR / AED at the location.


Through the 7th Annual 911 Ride, Canada’s 911 Foundation raised $20,000 for The Mikey Network to help us place our MIKEYs in more public places.  


To date, 1,300 MIKEY defibrillators have been placed, over 11,000 people have been trained in CPR / AED and 14 lives have been saved by a MIKEY.


Read more about the Bradford Curling Club MIKEY placement


Photo Credit: Miriam King, QMI Agency, Bradford Times