Keeping the Pulse

Sixty-three-year-old Island resident Lou Quattrucci has lived a healthy and active lifestyle. Prior to July, he had no signs of heart-disease.  

But on one sunny day in East Chop this summer, as he played on the clay of the local tennis courts with his friends, Quattrucci was hit with a “widowmaker,” a severe heart attack that very few are lucky enough to live through.

Only 12% of individuals who suffer a heart attack like his — an 80% blockage in the two main arteries — survive. Fortunately for Quattrucci, a retired pulmonologist, and a pharmacist, happened to be playing on the courts next to him.

Perhaps just as lucky, there was an automated external defibrillator (AED) nearby — a device that delivers an electric shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm. 

“I was really lucky I went down in a place that had it [an AED]. How many places are there that people can go down where there isn’t one?” said Quattrucci. 

Quattrucci said that he is grateful to be alive. Following his experience, he has launched an initiative to make AEDs more commonly available around the Island, train more people in how to use them, and to register all AEDs currently available on Island to a national registry, called Pulse Point AED, that places the life-saving devices on an online map accessible for the public. 

The initiative, named the MV Pulse Project, led by Quattrucci, has raised enough money to donate their first four AED units with training and are in the process of identifying community organizations and neighboring areas that would benefit the most.

“We think about where the gaps are and we see if we can help fill in some of the gaps,” Quattrucci said. 

Currently with 29 AEDs on Island uploaded to the AED national map registry, Quattrucci said the goal now is to have all AEDs on-Island uploaded, and to buy 10 AEDs to donate to areas without the lifesaving equipment nearby. Two places that come to mind for Quattrucci are the gingerbread Campgrounds and the Portuguese-American Club (The PA Club) in Oak Bluffs. 

While the PA Club is near the Oak Bluffs Fire Station, and the Gingerbread cottages are near the Oak Bluffs harbormasters office, the difference between a victim of a heart attack living or not, can come down to those few vital seconds. 

“What are the places that are busy and have an older audience in an area that there aren’t any nearby (AEDS),” said Quattrucci. “I also talked to the Sheriff’s Meadows guys,  like Cedar Tree Neck, if someone went down on a hike there how long would it take for an ambulance to show up?” 

Quattrucci said they are in the final steps of getting the AEDs ready for donation, but the goal isn’t just to buy and supply AEDs around the Island, but also to train individuals in life saving methods like CPR and how to properly administer AEDs in the case of a heart attack. 

“Fire departments do it  mostly for town employees but I am trying to get more training for the public. The YMCA just had a class this past Saturday, the Y is offering a class in Portuguese later this month too,” said Quattrucci

Quattrucci is currently working on creating a calendar to be posted online and in Island newspapers that lists the available CPR classes like the YMCA’s, BePreparedGroup’s, and local fire departments. 

“I met with several Island CPR leaders and paramedics.  We’re working on building out a calendar of publicly available CPR classes and want to socialize them as widely as possible,” he said. 

“It’s a pay it forward exercise… I was thinking about how lucky I was, and it just got me thinking through all the other times during the day that I am somewhere else,” said Quattrucci. “99% of my day is not near a defibrillator, like if I’m at home or riding my bike or out on my boat, so the idea is as simple as ‘holy smokes, how lucky am I and what can I do to help.’”