Ottawa resident launches crowdfunding initiative to install community defibrillators

Paul Dogra counts himself lucky.

The Upper Hunt Club area resident was at Minto Sports Plex playing hockey when he had a heart attack in the spring of 2017. If it was not for the presence of a defibrillator at the rink, he likely would have died that day.

Dogra recently installed an automated external defibrillator with a cabinet from Action First Aid outside his home for anyone to use. He is now looking to rally his community to crowdfund the installation of such devices in another neighbourhood. The initiative has raised $700 in its first week. 

“I just hope that it carries momentum and it goes from one neighbourhood from another to another,” said Dogra, who hosted a workshop Saturday morning at the Greenboro Community Centre to teach fellow residents about defibrillators. 

Dogra's hope is to one day see such units installed in every neighbourhood in Ottawa. 

It can cost up to $5,000 to install such a unit outside someone's home and costs an additional $10 a month to maintain, Dogra said. But access to them can ultimately save the lives of anyone who suffers a heart attack nearby. 

“I truly deep down inside don't want anyone to actually have to use the unit. The reality is (they) likely will. Just the feeling of being able to help someone that's going to need it, that's going to be pretty powerful,” he said. 

While Dogra was fortunate enough to have access to a defibrillator when he suffered his heart attack, there are many that simply do not have access when the are in need. 

It also is not just the middle aged and elderly, who can fall victim to cardiac arrest. Ottawa resident Damien Martin's eight-year-old son, Griffin, died last year after he suffered cardiac arrest at school. After Griffin's death, Martin and his family successfully worked toward getting defibrillator put in every public elementary school in the city. 

Martin said having a good network of defibrillator evenly distributed will be a great step toward having a “cardiac safe city.” 

“The impact of someone dying from cardiac arrest, especially someone very young, cannot be overstated,” said Martin who attended Dogra's workshop Saturday to support the initiative and share his story. “It's not one life. It's many many lives that are affected by that. We certainly have been. So it's absolutely worth doing and very important.” 

Dogra said he believes he is just the fifth person in Canada to install such a system outside his home for public use. Chris Troughton, a Kanata resident who attended the workshop Saturday, was the fourth.

Troughton, who has suffered four major heart attacks, said just knowing that there is public access to such a device nearby can can make residents feel safer. 

“If you don't have the tools in the toolbox, you're not going to be able to save a life,” he said.