Wear Red for Women donates an AED to St. John’s Community Center

December 1, 2023

Wear Red for Women, a Bothwell Foundation committee, recently gave an automated external defibrillator (AED) to St. John’s Community Center in Bahner. An AED is a small, lightweight device that allows individuals and first responders to treat sudden cardiac arrest. The machine automatically analyzes the heart rhythm and when appropriate, it delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.

The only way to currently restore a regular heart rhythm during cardiac arrest is to use an AED, and access to and knowledge of how to use an AED is critical, especially in more rural areas.

Funds to purchase the device were raised during the 2023 Wear Red for Women luncheon and auction. The committee’s goal is to have AEDs in every place people work, learn, play or pray in Sedalia and Pettis County. Since the inception of the luncheon event in 2020, 72 AEDs have been placed in or committed to various locations. The 2024 Wear Red for Women event is Feb. 23, 2024, and tickets will be available in January.

St. John’s Community Center received an automatic external defibrillator, from left, Rhonda Ahern, committee member; Dianne Simon, Thompson Hills Investment Corporation vice president and committee co-chair; Tom Dey, St. John the Evangelist parishioner; Fr. Joe Corel, St. John the Evangelist pastor; Lori Wightman, Bothwell CEO and committee co-chair; Connie McLaughlin and Trish Henson, committee members; and Lauren Thiel-Payne, Bothwell Foundation executive director.

Bothwell Regional Health Center is a regional health center serving west-central Missouri with state-of-the-art technology and comprehensive health and wellness services including primary care, specialty care and emergency care. For more information about Bothwell and its services, visit www.brhc.org or find us on Facebook.

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