Raising awareness about the importance of Automated External Defibrillators or AED's being available in public places.
That's what one Monroe County family hopes to accomplish after the sudden death of their loved one nearly 23 years ago.
The family along with officials at Shawnee Mountain raised awareness and money raised from ticket sales and raffles going straight to the Greg Moyer Fund.
“The month of February is Heart Month. We are here today at Shawnee Mountain raising awareness about CPR and the need for AED’s in schools and in places where people gather. “
“I’m showing and giving demonstrations and actually having people practice put the AED on a mannequin to see how easy it is to use.” said sister of Greg Moyer, Abbie Moyer.
Abbie Moyer is on a mission to see Automated External Device’s be installed in schools, public places, and police vehicles.
In 2000, Moyer's younger brother Greg who was 15-years-old at the time suddenly went into Cardiac Arrest while playing a basketball game.
“He played the first half of the game, gave us all a look as he walked off the court because he made one of two fouls shots and was proud of himself. He walked into the locker room and collapsed." said Moyer.
Moyer tells me there were no Automated External Device available and CRP was not performed for over 10 minutes.
“It took forever for the ambulance to arrive, the first ambulance to come didn’t have an AED. When the second ambulance came, they got lost in the parking lot, so it delayed additional therapy. They finally got his heart back, and they lost it on the way to the hospital.”
“We found out after the fact that he had a condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or HCM.” added Moyer.
ER doctors had told the Moyer family this tragedy should have never happened, and an AED should have been at the school.
“We have had to use AED’s here before, our ski patrol is fully trained on how to use them, we have multiple within the facility. We know first hand how important they are. We keep them updated, we keep their training updated. For us being able to help them raise money for more AED’s is huge.” said Marketing Director for Shawnee Mountain, Rachel Wyckoff.
Abbie tells FOX56 that Pennsylvania has a lot of work ahead of them, one being they do not require AED’s in schools.
Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin also suffered from cardiac arrest on January 2nd. The Moyer family hopes that situation will bring awareness to having the necessary equipment to respond to these emergency's.