The odds were against Mark Peters’ sitting across the table from me and boasting of the impressive crimson scar under his shirt.

Most who suffer cardiac arrest do not make it to the hospital, let alone reemerge whole. But here he was, spike-haired and 23, enthusing about his good fortune, a rainbow of rubber “cause” bracelets wobbling around his animated wrists.

The one that matters in this story was red, for the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund, which aims to put automated external defibrillators where they’re needed most desperately.

Moyer, Peters’ boyhood pal, died at halftime during a high school basketball game in 2000 because no device was on hand to reset the rhythm of his heart – not in the brand-new Monroe County school, not in the first ambulance, which took a half-hour to respond.

Moyer – seemingly invincible at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds – died at age 15. (more…)