Project Heart ReStart Expands to Indiana with More Than 70 AEDs for Law Enforcement Agencies

The Christ Hospital & Margaret Mary Health Will Donate AEDs on Monday Dec. 8.

CINCINNATI - The Christ Hospital Health Network, in partnership with Margaret Mary Health and Rotary Club and additional community foundation partners, will deliver 74 Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) to law enforcement agencies in Ripley and Franklin counties in Indiana. In total, $148,000 was raised as part of Phase IV of Project Heart ReStart.

The donation event will be held at Margaret Mary Health on Monday, December 8 at 3:00 p.m. in the cafeteria located at 321 Mitchell Avenue, in Batesville Indiana. Members of the media are welcomed to come to get video/photos and interviews. Speakers will include Debbie Hayes, President & CEO of The Christ Hospital Health Network, Liz Leising, President & CEO of Margaret Mary Health, Josh Vogel, Member of Rotary Club of Cincinnati, Mark Carter, President & COO of Cintas, Amy Streator and Shelly Lunsford, Executive Directors of community foundation partners and more.

Donors to Phase IV of Project Heart ReStart include, The Christ Hospital Health Network, Margaret Mary Health, Ripley County Community Foundation, Franklin County Community Foundation, Franklin County Health Department, Ripley County Health Department, Zoll, Cintas, The City of Batesville and numerous community donors.

Project Heart ReStart began supplying AEDs in law enforcement vehicles in 2023 shortly after the Damar Hamlin cardiac arrest in Cincinnati. In Phase I of Project Heart ReStart, the committee, along with Rotary Club of Cincinnati, Zoll, Cintas, Hamilton County Commissioners, all Cincinnati-based hospital systems and community donors, raised $260,000 to purchase 130 AEDs for all deputy cruisers for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

Through four phases of Project Heart ReStart, the committee has raised more than $1 million to purchase nearly 500 AEDs in Hamilton County, Ohio, Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Pendleton, Grant, Mason, Robertson and Gallatin counties in Kentucky with the addition of Ripley and Franklin counties in Indiana. Having an AED for our first responders on the scene of a cardiac event increases the survival rate from 10% to 40%.