Hillsborough County installing AEDs at 25 parks and sports complexes

1 day ago 7

Published June 6, 2025 5:23pm EDT

Hillsborough County parks in installing AEDs

TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough County is equipping about two dozen of its parks with emergency gear in the event of a cardiac emergency.

The county will install 25 AEDs, automated external defibrillators, at 23 parks and sports complexes across the county.

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What we know:

The American Heart Assocation funded the purchase of 25 AEDs for the Hillsborough County parks and sports complexes.

The first AED has been installed at the Skyway Sports Complex. It will be one of two parks that will have two AEDs onsite, because of its size.

"We're going to focus on putting these AEDs in sports complexes like this one that are very, very busy with thousands of users," Mikah Collins of Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation said. "But, we're also going to put them in our parks that are way out in the middle of nowhere, and that's going to be even more important, because it takes so long for an ambulance or first responders to get there."

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The AEDs will be available for public use in the event of a cardiac emergency.

The American Heart Association of Tampa Bay said if someone goes into cardiac arrest, when you call 911, dispatchers will give you a code to unlock the box containing the AED.

"As soon as you open the machine, it's going to start talking, and it's going to tell you exactly what to do," Courtney Burt, the vice president of community impact with the American Heart Association of Tampa Bay, said.

Burt said someone else should be performing CPR while the person is accessing the AED, and you're waiting for EMS to arrive.

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By the numbers:

The American Heart Association said the first two minutes of someone going into cardiac arrest are the most important in terms of response.

"CPR actually raises a person's chance of survival about two to three times," Burt said. "When we introduce an AED within that two-minute window, it can actually increase their survivability up to almost 70%."

Burt said about 1,000 people a day in the U.S. have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. She said a person's chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is less than 10%.

"With an AED, it really probably triples your likelihood of surviving a major heart attack," Dr. Doug Ross, the chief medical officer of the AdventHealth West Florida division, said.

Dig deeper:

Ross said an AED can be the difference between life and death. He said the machines are user-friendly and designed to be used by people who are not trained with them.

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"Talks you through it. These are very automatic, you know," Ross said. "You turn it on, it talks you through how to put the pads on, what to do. It'll analyze the heart rhythm. And then, if you need to be shocked, then it tells you to push the button to shock."

There's a growing movement to make AEDs more accessible.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1607, which will require school districts to provide basic first aid training to certain students. It will also require every public school and charter school to have at least one AED on campus by July 1, 2027.

"Not only will it help get funding and resources for schools to have the devices, but also the education related to CPR and policies that we call 'Cardiac Emergency Response Plans,'" Burt said.

The new Florida law will go into effect on July 1.

What's next:

Hillsborough County officials are installing the AEDs at the county parks and sports complexes and connecting them with 911 now. They hope the AEDs will be ready for use by August.

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