His head fell back. The 80-year-old's eyes rolled into his skull.

"He was gray," said his wife Celia Smith. "We thought we'd lost him."

But a fast-acting Pineville police sergeant and an automatic external defibrillator, the size of a laptop, helped save his life with a jolt of electricity.

Minutes, even seconds, can make the difference during a cardiac arrest. Because police are sometimes the first on the scene, the American Heart Association started an initiative four years ago to equip every marked police car in Mecklenburg County with automatic external defibrillators to help boost patients' chances.

Davidson, Cornelius, Mint Hill, Matthews and Huntersville police departments raised money to equip their patrol cars one-by-one. Pineville police just got their first defibrillators within the past months. Now the initiative is starting to tackle the biggest of them all: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Firetrucks and ambulances already carry such life-saving equipment. Even places such as Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, Paramount's Carowinds theme park, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center and the Charlotte Area Transit System's uptown transit center have acquired them. Someday, experts say, they will be as common as fire extinguishers.

But now they are still pricey at nearly $1,500 for the device and training. Pineville police are still raising money to equip their final patrol vehicles. Most cars, though, have the devices.

Smith's family now thanks the fact that they stopped for a meal after church services on Jan. 15 at the Tony Roma's in Pineville.

Smith and his wife were visiting the family of their daughter, Carla Brown, in southwestern Mecklenburg for the weekend from their home in Stockbridge, Ga. Their 6-year-old granddaughter, Adele Brown, told them she was hungry after they left church, so they stopped at the rib restaurant near Carolina Place Mall.

The couple was still contemplating what to order when Celia Smith looked over at her husband to ask what he had decided. His mouth looked funny, she said. His head then tipped back.

Mason Smith had experienced irregular heart beats over the past 40 years, but they always passed without incident. And he had felt fine that Sunday.

But as he lay on the floor of Tony Roma's, he didn't have a pulse. Two women in the restaurant started to perform CPR. Meanwhile, Pineville police Sgt. Corey Copley was finishing a call at nearby Best Buy when he heard a request for a defibrillator on his radio.

Pineville officers had received the devices and training only months before. Copley, a former paramedic who used similar equipment when he rode in ambulances, rushed to the restaurant.

He saw the two women performing CPR and quickly set up the equipment. The automated external defibrillator reads the heart and determines if a shock would help. In this case, it showed, yes, an electrical jolt might work.

Copley shocked the man.

Mason Smith started breathing on his own, with labored gasps. A strong pulse returned.

A team of paramedics then whisked him to Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville.

"I can't hit it home enough," Copley said. "Having those AEDs in patrol cars is probably the best money we've spent in a while."

Mason Smith woke up the following Tuesday in a hospital bed. "I'm dreaming this," he recalled thinking. "It's not happening." But then he realized his hands were restrained and he had a ventilator poking down his throat.

He received three stints to open arteries in his heart, a pacemaker and a defibrillator inside his chest. Last Thursday, he was released and finally allowed to head back home under a restricted diet of low sodium, low fat and no ribs.

Smith didn't know much about defibrillators before his visit to Pineville. Nor did he know he was the first person saved by the initiative to put the device into Mecklenburg police cars. But he applauds the local project that helped save his life.

"You may never need them again," Smith said. "But you did once."

Want to Help?

Marked police cars in Davidson, Cornelius, Mint Hill, Matthews, Huntersville and Pineville now carry automated external defibrillators. Every Charlotte Fire Department truck carries them as well, while all Medic ambulances carry even more advanced heart equipment. But heartREstart organizers say they aren't yet finished with their initiative:** Pineville police said they are still trying to raise money for five more defibrillators at $1,425 each. To make a contribution, send checks payable to:

Pineville heartREstart

Attn: Lt. Wayne Embrey

Pineville Police Department

PO Box 249

Pineville, NC 28134

** To help with the initiative to equip all Charlotte-Mecklenburg police marked patrol cars with defibrillators, send checks to:

American Heart Association

heartREstart Department

ATTN: Regina Fleenor

222 S. Church St., Suite 303

Charlotte, NC 28202

What Is an Automated External Defibrillator?

** The machine searches heart rhythms for abnormalities. Then, the AED signals whether an electrical shock would help restore the person's heart beat. It tells a rescuer how to deliver a shock, then tries to jump start the heart with a jolt.

** The first AEDs used outside of hospitals weighed 110 pounds, but they can now weigh less than 8 pounds and are about the size of a laptop.

** AEDs have been added to many public places including airports, schools, churches and shopping centers. Some people with prior cardiac problems even purchase them for their homes.

SOURCES: American Heart Association, American Red Cross

Want to Learn?

The American Red Cross Greater Carolinas Chapter offers training in CPR and how to use automated external defibril- lators. You can register directly on the Web at www.redcrosshelps.org/classes and type either "CPR" or "aed" into the search window. Or call (704) 376-1661.

Become Educated

** Become CPR certified.

** Understand the symptoms of a heart attack:

-- Pressure, tightness or heaviness in the chest.

-- Pain in the left arm. (Note: some attacks occur without pain.)

-- Nausea, dizziness or weakness.

-- Sweating while experiencing pain in the chest or left arm.

-- Shortness of breath.

** Learn to call 911 early if heart attack symptoms occur. Listen carefully to the emergency dispatcher. Many can explain how to perform CPR or use a defibrillator to those without certification.