Honors for local piano prodigy

by Soren Velice

After a February 9 training session, Blaine’s police force is equipped with skills necessary to bridge the gap between first response and advanced life support in the event of a cardiac emergency.

Officers learned how to use an external defibrillator, a device that automatically evaluates a patient’s heart rhythm and administers an electrical shock to help the heart resume its normal beat. “We recognize there’s a gap in the response to medical emergencies up here,” police chief Bill Elfo said. “We hope to bridge that gap by getting officers to the scene in the first few minutes when it could be life or death.”

Trainer Bill Merritt said Blaine and Semiahmoo is just the kind of area that could benefit from having defibrillators available. “There’s a large retirement community, so it’s a good population for them.” The point was made last November when Greg and Raquel Hansen, employees at the Inn at Semiahmoo, successfully used a defibrillator on a guest after he suffered a heart attack.