Mail delivery from the heart

Marisa O’Neil

The Mailman made a special delivery to Newport Beach police on

Tuesday.

Los Angeles Laker Karl Malone and his agent, Dwight Manley, both

Newport Beach residents, donated $81,000 for the department to

purchase defibrillators for every marked police vehicle. Their hope

is that the equipment will help people like Malone’s mother, Shirley

Jackson Malone, who died last year of a heart attack.

“It’s always hindsight,” Malone said to officers at a press

conference. “Who knows if one of you could’ve saved my mom’s life.”

The automated external defibrillators are roughly the size of a

lunch box. Police personnel will receive two hours of training of the

units, which shock the heart back into a regular rhythm during a

heart attack.

Each unit also has voice commands that walk the user through the

process of applying the adhesive paddles on the patient’s chest and

performing CPR afterward, if necessary.

“Time is of the essence [in a heart attack],” said Dr. Aidan

Raney, director of cardiovascular surgery at Hoag Hospital. “The

sooner the heart gets shocked back into its regular rhythm, the more

likely [patients] are to survive.”

The Newport Beach Police Department started raising money a few

months ago to buy the defibrillators, Chief Bob McDonell said. But

the fundraising efforts got a big boost when police officers took

Sahar Manley’s children on a ride-along she’d purchased at a charity

auction.

When she heard about the plan to outfit police cars with the

defibrillators, she told her husband, Dwight. She said she was

shocked that, in Newport Beach, the police department had only raised

$10,000 of the $91,000 needed for the program.

“No one really donates money for law enforcement,” Sahar Manley

said. “People just assume they’re always there to take care of us.”

The Manleys and their neighbors, Karl and Kay Malone, offered to

donate the difference so police could buy the equipment.

Karl Malone joked that his donation was part of a family legacy

started by his late mother, who he said got pulled over by police for

traffic violations on a fairly regular basis.

“My mom got stopped two or three times a week,” Malone said. “She

knew the officer by name. He always had a smile, but he’d always

write a ticket. She was donating back then.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.