AEDs installed on the North Shore’s Grouse Grind trail

Hikers head up the Grouse Grind on Friday, May 3, 2019.

In a move that could very well save lives, AEDs, or automated external defibrillators, have been installed along the busy Grouse Grind hiking trail in North Vancouver.

The three devices went up last week at the quarter, halfway and three-quarter marks along the route.

Tyler Langeloo, supervisor of park operations at Metro Vancouver, told CTV News the decision to install the equipment came from conversations with firefighters and search and rescue volunteers who respond to medical incidents on the trail.

Dubbed “mother nature’s Stairmaster,” the Grind is popular with locals and tourists alike. More than 100,000 hikers take on the steep climb every year, according to Grouse Mountain.

“We certainly have had incidents of people with cardiac arrest on the Grouse Grind in the past. So this is really more of us trying to be proactive,” he said.

The AEDs are attached to trees inside a water-proof box. The devices are designed to be easy to use for members of the public without any training and will give verbal directions to the user, with a screen showing video instructions, Langeloo explained.

“It can definitely potentially help save a life,” he said, adding that an AED always needs to be used in addition to CPR. When the two are used in conjunction, the chances of someone in cardiac arrest surviving rise dramatically.

An estimated 60,000 Canadians experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital every year, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The survival rate is about 10 per cent, but can double if the patient gets CPR and an AED.

The AEDs on the Grouse Grind are the first public-facing ones in Metro Vancouver’s regional parks system, Langeloo said, and based on the pilot project more could be added in other areas.

When the trail closes for the winter months, the AEDs will be removed, but Langeloo says they’re likely to be back when the Grind reopens in the spring barring any issues.