Heather Wright/The Independent

There is more help for people who have a heart attack in Inwood.

The Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund has installed a defibrillator a the Inwood Variety.

Patrick Armstrong, the charity’s executive director, says the group is trying to get as many of the portable units installed as possible in the name of their friend, an OPP officer, volunteer firefighter and military man, who died in the line of duty in Huron County.

So far the charity has donated 221 units, including the one in Inwood. It’s part of a big push to get defibrillators in Lambton.

“We had the Sarnia Legion donate $20,000 so we’re on a big dozen defibs For Lambton to put a dozen defibs out in the next month and a half in Lambton County, and obviously smaller places that tend not to have a lot of defibrillators, there are priorities,” says Armstrong.

The units are needed in rural areas where it often takes some time for emergency help to arrive, particularly in the winter.

“As soon as we start getting that snowfall, that can back ambulance up because of weather conditions. And I know we have amazing volunteer firefighters. Dave Mounsey – he was a volunteer firefighter as well as an OPP officer – but having this life saving equipment right here in the heart of Inwood, I think it’s perfect,” says Armstrong, calling it Fred and Donna Oriet’s store “the hub” of the community.

“Statistics have shown that … the chances of survival go up up to 75 per cent if a defib is put on within the first five minutes, compared to traditional CPR.”

The defibrillator is just inside the door of the business .

Armstrong says the new units are also donated in memory of military servicemen who died in the communities they are placed. Inwood’s is in remembrance of Gordon Clark.

“He was killed, August 13, 1944 over in France as a member of the Essex Scottish regiment,” Armstrong says. “What people don’t realize is these small towns gave so much in World War One, World War Two, and lost so many young men and women with nursing sisters and pilot officers.”