The Montesano Police Department announced at a city council meeting Tuesday evening that it had secured eight Automated Defibrillator Devices for use in its eight patrol vehicles.

Through a grant from the Kelsey Foundation, Monte PD was able to purchase eight AED devices, which are used by first responders to administer critical aid to patients dealing with severe cardiac issues.

The idea was the brainchild of Montesano Patrol Officer Brandon Kallgren, who said the idea took off after fellow Monte PD officer James Gillies performed CPR to help save the life of Dustin Bruland, who collapsed in his garage due to a cardiac issue on the morning of June 9.

“I had actually thought about pursuing it prior to that,” Kallgren said. “But after (Gillies performed CPR), I said to myself, ‘We need to get this done and get this done now.’”

So Kallgren took to the task of finding the right type of machines and a funding source as COVID restrictions have hamstrung any extra expenditures for the department. He called the Montesano Fire Department for advice. It has similar, more sophisticated AED machines currently in use.

“This whole process started at the fire department. … I asked those guys what they thought if we had AEDs in our vehicles and they all thought it was a great idea,” Kallgren said while holding one of the portable devices in the fire department recommended. “I then asked if they had any idea where to get the money and they gave me a couple of different ideas and the Kelsey Foundation was one of them.”

Kallgren sent a letter to the Kelsey Foundation, a local organization that provides charitable donations to improve communities in Montesano, East County and Grays Harbor. His search for funding ended there.

“I didn’t need to go anywhere else,” he said. “They thought it was a great idea.”

Approximately two weeks later, the foundation provided the department with more than $14,000 in funds to purchase the life-saving devices, which the department received last week.

“You never know when we are going to be present at a CPR event and my thinking was it’s highly likely we are going to get there before the fire department, simply because we are moving around town and are on patrol,” Kallgren said. “These calls come out, we hear them and we can get there faster. We don’t have to wait to man apparatus and do the things that the fire department has to do. We have a great fire department here, but we can just get there quicker and I was thinking, ‘Why not have these machines?’ These machines literally save lives.”

The devices themselves perform many functions to assist first responders in dealing with critical cardiac situations. AEDs contain heart-activity sensors, CPR monitoring that can inform the user when and how strong to perform chest compressions, and an automated defibrillator which will inform the user when a shock is to be applied.

As Kallgren puts it, the AEDs obtained by the Monte PD are compatible with similar devices used by the fire department, so switching between devices is seamless.

The Montesano Fire Department is currently training Monte PD officers how to use and maintain the AED devices, with all eight officers expected to complete training by the end of this week.

Monte Police Lieutenant Bob Wilson said the devices are crucial for saving lives and offered he was proud of the initiative Kallgren took in securing the devices for the department.

“CPR and chest compressions are effective until somebody from aid personnel can get there and actually provide a shock. The de-fibrillation that this machine puts out is actually what usually starts the heart. It’s not the chest compressions themselves. In Officer Gillies situation, he kept that blood running and kept that oxygen to the brain, however, it was probably (an AED) machine that started the heart,” Wilson said. “I’m really proud of Brandon. Due to COVID, the money just isn’t there for the city to make that expense. Brandon took it upon his own plate and ran with it and made it happen. That is what we like to see from our officers.”

Kallgren said it won’t take long to recoup the investment in the devices.

“We are going to use them at some point, and the first time we use them they are going to pay for themselves,” he said.