Youth team earned AED

Youth baseball just got a little bit safer in Portland.

Dylan Williams Forever an All Star Foundation awarded an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the Portland Junior League baseball and softball diamonds on Tuesday.

The Portland All Stars 8-and-younger baseball team won the ninth annual Dylan Williams Memorial Baseball Tournament in early July, with one of the prizes being an AED.

The Dylan Williams Forever an All Star Foundation was founded in memory of Dylan Williams, who died of cardiac arrest in 2013 at a practice after being struck in the neck with a baseball. While parents and coaches performed CPR, by the time emergency responders arrived, it was too late for Williams.

The foundation has provided 81 AEDs to local ball clubs throughout Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina.

Having an AED that can diagnose and treat life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias on-site can save a player’s life.

“Hopefully we never have to use it,” coach Brady Johnson said. “In the case where it is needed, we’ll have it right there within minutes instead of a half hour to get a kid to a hospital.”

The Jay County Baseball Club plans to have a professional come to teach the organization’s board members how to properly use the device in the case of an emergency.

The Portland Junior League is still deciding exactly where to put the AED, but it is currently planned to be placed somewhere in the building that houses the concession stand.

“We appreciate what they’re doing,” Johnson said. “We look forward to supporting it by joining their tournaments every year and spreading the word.”