Hoag to give lifesaving devices to golf courses

Matt Grenert

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Hoag Heart Institute and Medtronic USA Inc. on

Wednesday began donating automatic external defibrillators to 10 golf

courses, public and private, throughout Orange County.

Portable and easy to use, the defibrillators restore normal heart

rhythm in victims suffering from heart attacks, which kill about 220,000

Americans each year.

“Placing [the defibrillators] in public places has been shown to

dramatically increase the chance of survival for these victims,” said

Joel Manchester, medical director at the Hoag Institute.

The American Heart Assn. and the Hoag Institute will teach the staff

at the 10 randomly chosen golf courses how to use the defibrillators.

Hoag officials said they hope to reduce the number of cardiac arrests at

golf courses, an area which the heart association has found to be

high-risk for heart attacks.

The public courses that will receive the devices are the Aliso Viejo

Golf Club, the David L. Baker Memorial Golf Center in Fountain Valley,

the Mile Square Golf Course in Fountain Valley, the Newport Beach Golf

Course, the Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach, the River View Golf

Course in Santa Ana and the Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine.

The three private courses are the Mission Viejo Country Club, the

Newport Beach Country Club and the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach.

For the county courses that are not getting a defibrillator, Hoag

plans to start a voucher program that will allow them to buy one of the

devices for about $1,000 off the usual $3,500 cost.