Curtes, co-owner of Auer Steel and Heating Supply Co., Milwaukee, suffered sudden cardiac arrest while on the top of a mountain in Vail, CO. a year-and-a-half ago. Because ski patrollers were equipped with an automatic external defibrillator (AED), he was kept alive until he was transported to a medical facility.

Since then he has been promoting AEDs for use within the hvacr industry. His company has trained its employees in the use of AEDs and has installed them in their facilities in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. He also requested that Carrier install them in their Chicago headquarters, which they have.

He said that dealers in his region have donated money to have AEDs installed in police patrol cars, too.

Curtes returned to the mountaintop in Vail this year. “I celebrated my first year reunion back on the mountain that I didn’t have a chance to ski in 2000,” he said.

Publication date: 06/25/2001