Frankfort Rotary Club President Lynn Beck admitted his life changed forever on November 13, 2019, when something totally unexpected happened to him when he was on an airplane.
Beck had a heart attack. But thanks to the use of a special device, his life was saved. That device is a defibrillator.
“You don’t know what the next day brings,” said Beck at Thursday’s Frankfort Rotary Club meeting. “But, I went through that open heart surgery in January of 2020 and that led me here to this group. I’m thinking I’m the president and I get to pick my project. I think God put it in my head and here they are. This is going to continue on. I won’t stop as long as I can do it.”
What the defibrillator does is spark the heart back into action. It delivers a dose of electric current to the heart which ends the arrhythmia and returns the heart back to normal. The key point here is that this needs to do in three minutes.
“Right now, we have another $5,000 coming that we have been approved for,” said Beck. “We have asked for another $34,000 from the Clinton County Community Foundation and don’t know if we’ll get all that. If we do, we’ll have $50,000 to buy or procure more of these.”
During the program, Rotary gave out nine defibrillators to three separate organizations. Three each went to the Frankfort Police Department and to Clinton Prairie High School, while two others went to the Frankfort Fire Department. Beck said the final one was going to Arborwood where they have their meetings.
The guest speaker was Superintendent of the Indiana State Police Doug Carter, who was asked why he came.
“It’s such a relief for me,” said Carter. “Just to be around our citizens and have these kinds of conversations is awesome. I really enjoy it.”
“I think it’s important in my position to make myself available to people,” continued Carter. “Just talk candidly after life and I do that.”
Carter, who is coming up on his 40th year with the ISP, was the one in charge of the investigations in the murders of two young girls in Delphi, Libby German and Abigail Williams. He has also spent countless and endless hours on that case plus the arson fire in Flora where four young girls lost their lives.
Carter said his speaking at the Rotary meeting was a welcome reprieve for him.
“Everyday of my life is just crazy. It’s wild,” said Carter. “But, it will go away. It’s OK.”
Beck was asked how can other individuals or businesses go about getting a defibrillator.
“What if we had enough for maybe a half of one,” said Beck. “Would the business want to have one. They are more than welcome to. However I can continue the program is what I’d like to do.”