Allentown police vehicles will be equipped with AEDs thanks to a donation from the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund from Shawnee-on-the-Delaware and St. Luke’s University Health Network.

Twenty-three AEDs are being donated to the department in honor of Greg Moyer, a 15-year-old Notre Dame East Stroudsburg varsity basketball player who died from cardiac arrest in the locker room on Dec. 2, 2000.

Moyer’s uniform number was 23.

Rachel Moyer created the fund in her son’s memory and has been working to make Automated External Defibrillators or AEDs easily accessible across schools, public places, and police vehicles.

“I can’t change that Greg is gone, but maybe I can change something that will make it better for others,” Moyer said.

St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus President Frank Ford commented.

“It’s just natural that St. Luke’s, which is so much committed to the city and committed to the health of its citizens, should be involved in this lifesaving project,” Ford said.

APD Chief Glenn Granitz, Jr. says his department is ready to use this lifesaving tool to assist Allentown’s residents and visitors.

“The City of Allentown has seen the tremendous benefits of our police officers using other lifesaving measures such as Naloxone (Narcan) and tourniquets that have resulted in countless lives saved,” Granitz said. “Thanks to the passion of Rachel Moyer and the kindness of St. Luke’s Health Network we are able to do even more in our community.”

According to the American Red Cross, “An AED is used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. It’s a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, medical device that can analyze the heart’s rhythm and, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock, or defibrillation, to help the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.”

Allentown police officers are trained in the operation of AEDs.