Public Safety committee  Hello. My name is Bruno Gendron, and I have been a police officer with the City of Ottawa Police Service for 10 years. Before that, I worked as a paramedic in Ottawa for 17 years. Since joining the Ottawa Police Service, I have been in charge of the defibrillator program, which

Public Safety committee  The main cost is the pads, once the unit has been bought. Everything comes through the City of Ottawa, then Ottawa paramedics are the leaders of the program, and they are the ones who do the preventive maintenance about every three years. Recently we just changed all of our units

Public Safety committee  The service purchases the pads, which are $75, and then the batteries need to be changed every three years, when they do preventative maintenance.

Public Safety committee  Issues in which way?

Public Safety committee  Not at all. Like they explained, our co-workers, our friends, it's teamwork. The chain, the link, the early defibrillation and early CPR—for paramedics, when CPR or defibrillation is started on the patient, like it's been explained, the travel time.... They're overwhelmed with ca

Public Safety committee  We had one incident that was reported to us. There was an arc when the shock was given to a patient and it was attributed to the fact that the pads were defective. The cause was most likely that they had been left in cold temperatures, warmed up, frozen, and warmed up again.

Public Safety committee  No, I don't have that information.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  There's an expiration date. Right now the new ones that we receive are good until 2022, so four years.

Public Safety committee  Yes. At the start of every shift, the officer will open the Pelican case where the unit is stored, and they'll make sure that a check mark and the expiry date are on the pads.

Public Safety committee  No, none have been reported to us.

Public Safety committee  Exactly. Every year, we have our annual recertification of CPR, first aid and AED as well.

Public Safety committee  I'm not sure. I would say it's probably standard across the province.

Public Safety committee  We haven't encountered that problem here in Ottawa. Even our tactical unit carry defibrillators, and they carry more equipment than a patrol unit, and there have never been any issues with space for the Pelican case when we carry the AED.

Public Safety committee  That's right. At the end of their shift, especially during winter because of the cold, police officers bring the AEDs inside the station to prevent problems with the batteries and electrodes.