When the Christ Church of Oak Brook installed defibrillators, Doug Oldfield immediately thought his employer would benefit from them.

Oldfield’s thinking paid off over the summer when the State Bank of Countryside decided to go with their 15-year employee’s idea. In early December, all six branches will install the life-saving equipment in their buildings.

“I thought the whole idea was a pretty strong concept,” Oldfield, vice president of commercial lending, said. “I thought it’d be a great thing to have at the bank in case employees or customers had a problem.”

The bank has already purchased the defibrillators at a cost of more than $30,000 from Code Red, said Nancy Lind, executive vice president. She said the devices will be installed in December after employees are trained to use them.

“We’ve never had an emergency, but it sounded interesting,” Lind said. “If you can save a few lives with a few thousand dollars, we’ll do it.”

Lind said volunteer employees will be trained during business hours and that the bank would also like to see employees take first aid training. Oldfield, who was trained through his church, said he was surprised that the bank hadn’t thought to install the equipment before.

“It was a little surprising ... the success ratio is about 67 percent versus 7 or 8 percent with regular CPR, so that’s why they’ve become so prevalent in public places,” Oldfield said.

Most employees seemed to support the decision to install the life-saving devices in the bank, Lind said. She said once employees are trained, teams will be put in place.

“I’m expecting enthusiasm. Each person knows what needs to be done at the locations,” Lind said. “You have three minutes (to act).”

Employees will be trained Dec. 12 and the defibrillators will be installed by the end of that week, Lind said.