Saving Lives
Too Young to Be Lost

Pam Foster is a registered nurse who spent a large part of her career working in a Southern California emergency room. In 2004, Pam launched her company, AED Institute of America, due to a desire to instruct and promote early bystander CPR and the use of AEDs in public spaces. AED Institute is proud to have implemented thousands of Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Programs and instructed tens of thousands of citizens in the life saving skill of CPR, and is now the largest distributor of AEDs in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, as well as California and the West Coast.

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In September 2006, Pam accepted a contract to implement one of our country’s most complex Public Access Defibrillation Programs, the State of Hawaii-Department of Transportation Airports Division's AED Program, known as Operation Stay’N Alive. This Hawaii based program has since expanded to thirteen airports on six islands and offers free CPR and AED training to any member of the public. Operation Stay’N Alive has won both State and National awards in recognition of its success.

In 2010, Pam founded the Hawaii Heart Foundation, and turned her attention to teaching CPR to a new group of students: 5th graders. The Hawaii Heart Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization with the mission to improve Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survival rates throughout the state of Hawaii. Recently, the Hawaii Heart Foundation has partnered with the HI Department of Education to provide hands-on CPR training in schools to students, teachers, parents, and staff. Since 2010, the foundation has trained over 200,000 students, faculty, and community members, and their mission continues to thrive. Pam's enthusiasm is contagious, because she knows that “The children are our future, and they will turn the survival rates upside down.”