Sea Pines security vehicles soon will be outfitted with automated external defibrillators-devices that could provide life-saving electrical shocks to heart attack victims according to officials of the Sea Pines Company.  The Sea Pines Company has stated that sometimes officers of Sea Pines Security arrive on the scene of an emergency before ambulances or the fire and rescue vehicles arrive.  Sea Pines is the last among the island's large communities to equipt security vehicles with the automated defibrillators according to Lavon Lucas, chief of the Town of Hilton Head Fire and Rescue Division. Hilton Head Plantation, Indigo Run, Long Cove Club, Palmetto Dunes Resort, Palmetto Hall, Port Royal Plantation, Shipyard Plantation, and Wexford Plantation all have had AEDs in their patrol cars for the past several years.

These devices cost approximately $2500 each and Sea Pines has voted to purchase eight AEDs for its six patrol cars and two off-road vehicles.  It is reassuring to know that Sea Pines Plantation security vehicles will soon have these devices in the event that cardiac arrest patients need them.  These patients can begin to suffer irreversible brain damage if oxygen does not get to the brain within four to six minutes according to a study by the American Heart Association.

I applaud the Community Services Associates, the governing board of Sea Pines Plantation, for this investment in the health and safety of its residents and visitors.