Jamie’s Heart Foundation, a local non-profit organization dedicated to assisting families who are battling childhood heart disease, has donated a portable automated external defibrillator (AED) to the City of Puyallup. At the request of the donor, the defibrillator will equip Puyallup School Resource Officer Mark Ketter in the event it can be used to aid a child or youth who experiences life-threatening cardiac arrest.
Tim Hannah, founder and president of Jamie’s Heart Foundation, explained that while the use of a portable defibrillator did not save his own daughter’s life, the fact that one was available in her time of need had provided some measure of hope in extraordinarily distressing circumstances. Hannah’s daughter, Jamie, was born with a rare congenital heart defect and passed away shortly after her second birthday.
In accepting the defibrillator, Officer Ketter noted that among his job’s many aspects, the most important is to keep children safe. He expressed appreciation for the AED as a potentially lifesaving gift.
Jaime’s Heart Foundation was created in 2007 in memory of Jaime Noel Hannah. The foundation offers financial and emotional assistance to children with congenital heart disease and their families.