Sixty-three-year-old Island resident Lou Quattrucci has lived a healthy and active lifestyle. Prior to July, he showed no signs of heart disease. But on one sunny day this summer at East Chop, while playing on the hardtop of the local tennis courts with his friends, Quattrucci suffered a “widow maker” — a severe heart attack caused by an 80% blockage in the two main arteries. This type of heart attack is often fatal, with only about 12% of individuals surviving.
Fortunately for Quattrucci, a retired pulmonologist was playing on the court 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],” said Quattrucci. “How many places are there that people can go down where there isn’t one?”
Grateful to be alive, Quattrucci has since launched an initiative to make AEDs more widely available around the Island. His goal is to train more people in how to use them and to register all AEDs currently available on the Island to a national registry called PulsePoint AED. This registry places life-saving devices on an online map accessible to the public.
So far, Quattrucci has raised enough money to donate four AED units complete with training. He is now working to identify community organizations and neighboring areas that could benefit most from the devices.
“We think about where the gaps are and see if we can help fill in some of the gaps,” Quattrucci said.
Currently, 29 AEDs on the Island have been uploaded to the national AED map registry. Quattrucci’s goal is to have all AEDs on-Island registered and to purchase 10 new AEDs to donate to locations without this life-saving equipment nearby.
Two places that come to mind 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 close to the Oak Bluffs harbormaster’s office, in a heart attack emergency, every second counts.
“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 and his team are in the final steps of preparing the AEDs for donation. However, the goal goes beyond just supplying AEDs — it also includes training individuals in life-saving methods like CPR and how to properly administer AEDs during a heart attack.
“Fire departments mostly provide training for town employees, but I’m trying to get more training for the public,” Quattrucci explained. “The YMCA just had a class this past Saturday, and the Y is offering a class in Portuguese later this month too.”
He is currently working on creating a calendar to be posted online and in Island newspapers that lists available CPR classes offered by organizations like the YMCA, Be Prepared Group, 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 publicize them as widely as possible,” he said.
“It’s a pay-it-forward exercise,” Quattrucci continued. “I was thinking about how lucky I was, and it just got me thinking about all the other times during the day that I’m somewhere else. Ninety-nine percent of my day is not near a defibrillator — like if I’m at home, 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?’”
https://www.mvtimes.com/2025/10/21/keeping-the-pulse/