LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mayor Linda Gorton and a group of health professionals, first responders and residents launched the Cardiac Crusade at Lexington Fire Station 1 to map the locations of automated external defibrillators across the city, according to a city news release. The volunteer-driven effort is run locally by Cardiac CATS, a group led by residents Sarah Katzenmaier and Charlotte Callan, who will visit, verify and map devices throughout the city.

Gorton said in the release that she supports the effort as both mayor and a registered nurse, and she credited a partnership among the nonprofit Cardiac Crusade, the Lexington Fire Department, the Division of E-911, UK HealthCare and the American Heart Association. The city cited the American Heart Association for the figure that more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside hospitals each year, with 90% of those patients not surviving.

Council Member Tyler Morton said the initiative grew out of a conversation with Katzenmaier, a District 1 constituent. Katzenmaier survived sudden cardiac arrest in 2021 during Lexington's annual Thriller parade, after bystanders and Callan, who performed CPR, responded. Morton said the people closest to Katzenmaier did not know where the nearest AED was located, and the release said that gap is what the mapping aims to close.

The city said less than half of people who experience cardiac arrest receive CPR from bystanders before emergency responders arrive. WKYT also reported on the launch, describing Cardiac CATS as the group leading the effort locally.

Katzenmaier said in the release that CPR keeps oxygen moving to the brain while an AED restarts the heart. She urged residents to download the PulsePoint AED app, known as NEAR, and map devices they see. A commentary Katzenmaier wrote for the Kentucky Lantern said only devices marked as verified appear as functional AEDs that 911 dispatchers can use to direct bystanders.

Maps will be available to the public and first responders through the PulsePoint Foundation's registry, and Lexington's E-911 division and fire department will have access. According to FOX 56, Cardiac Crusade volunteers have verified more than 12,000 AED locations nationwide. Gov. Andy Beshear endorsed the local initiative, which a city-distributed release said aims to map more than 1,000 devices in Lexington and Fayette County.

An official kickoff takes place at 5 p.m. Oct. 16 at West Sixth Brewing, 501 West Sixth Street, coinciding with National Restart a Heart Day. Organizers will recruit volunteers to canvass businesses, residential buildings and government facilities. WUKY reported that organizers hope to map as many devices as possible by February.

Business and property owners can register devices at the PulsePoint registry, and residents interested in becoming certified volunteer verifiers can complete online training through a registration page.

Lexington Fire Chief Jason Wells said in the release that early CPR and rapid defibrillation drive cardiac arrest survival, and that mapping devices strengthens the city's emergency response. UK HealthCare cardiologist Dr. Vedant Gupta, director of the Gill Heart & Vascular Institute, who treated Katzenmaier after her arrest, said in the release that time spent searching for an AED is time patients do not have.