MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WNDU) -A LaPorte County family is fighting to bring more AED’s to their area since their twelve-year-old, Colton Davis, tragically passed away after going into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital in 2019.
16 News Now tells us how they turned this tragedy into an opportunity to prevent things like this from impacting more families.
Brett and Erin Davis say they want people to be aware of a couple of things. Aware of undiagnosed cardiac issues that could impact your child. Aware of the resources in your community in case someone you know goes into cardiac arrest. And aware of opportunities to become CPR and AED certified so you can save a life.
Colton’s parents say he had a big heart that made him a tough competitor in sports and a joyful son off the field.
Tragically, he passed away in November of 2019 after going into cardiac arrest on an advanced life support ambulance transporting him to the hospital. His mother says an automatic external defibrillator, or AED, could have saved his life, but the ambulance didn’t have one.
“We have to make sure that that doesn’t happen to somebody else. Somebody else’s kid. Someone’s grandparent. To anyone,” Erin Davis said.
They turned tragedy into change by starting a Gofundme page that already raised enough money to purchase two AED’s for first responder vehicles.
An Indiana non-profit ‘Bolt for the Heart’ committed to matching the dollars raised by the Gofundme and they didn’t stop there.
“Coinciding with that, we’re doing a 5K run in Michigan City on October the 30th with the sole focus of raising money to put AED’s in the rest of the LaPorte County Officer cars. 85 AED’s is the goal,” said Bolt for the Heart President & Founder Pierre Twer.
The Davis’ say accessibility to these devices is one thing, but to have people trained to use them is how lives are saved.
“We also want to teach the awareness of being able to perform CPR. There was a lot of things that happened that day that shouldn’t have happened. You have to be ready at any given time to perform CPR or use an AED,” said Colton’s father, Brett Davis.
Keeping their community prepared the next time a child faces a life-threatening accident.
Follow this link to head to the family’s Gofundme page.
Click here to learn more about Bolt for the Heart and how to register for the 5K.
