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Automated External
Defibrillators (AEDs) are becoming increasingly common in workplaces
and public facilities across the nation. They’ve been endorsed by
several medical research studies and
health care organizations, including the American Heart Association,
American Red Cross, the American Safety & Health Institute and OSHA,
because of their proven ability to save lives.
Still, many
facilities and organizations that support large volumes of people
have not deployed AEDs at their facilities. In the U.S. alone,
sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) kills more than 450,000 people
each year, more than car accidents, breast and prostrate cancer,
handguns, fires and AIDS combined, according to the Sudden Cardiac
Arrest Foundation.
The only cure for most cases of SCA is immediate shock therapy from
an AED, or “Automated External Defibrillator,” which is a device
that shocks a lifeless heart back to a normal rhythm.
An astounding 50 to 70 percent of those who receive defibrillation
from an AED within three to five minutes of sudden cardiac arrest
survive. The key then is widespread AED deployment, so that
the needed ‘therapy’ from a defibrillator can be delivered
immediately, even by non-medically trained personnel.
The nature of Sudden Cardiac Arrest is such that it can happen to
anyone, anytime, anywhere. Organizations that deploy AEDs not only
save lives, they can improve morale. Consider the very different
experiences of employees that work for a firm that deployed AEDs and
actually saved lives as a result, versus one that had not. Beyond
the employee saved, or lost, it is not hard to figure which group of
employees would feel better about their organization.
Why are AEDs so Critical to Recovery?
Think of the heart’s electrical system as a complex machine similar
to a computer with lots of electrical wiring. A Sudden Cardiac
Arrest is like the computer freezing up. The normal heart rhythm
goes haywire and the heart can no longer pump the blood effectively.
The victim collapses, stops breathing, and has no detectable pulse.
Every minute that the heart is not beating lowers the odds of
survival by 7 percent to 10 percent. After 10 minutes without
defibrillation very few people
survive4. Again, widespread AED deployment is paramount to ensure
that defibrillation occurs in as little as three to five minutes.
There is usually nothing structurally wrong with a computer when it
freezes up. Similarly, in most cases, there’s nothing structurally
wrong with the heart when it goes into SCA. Just as a reboot will
frequently effectively restart a computer, an electrical shock to
the heart delivered by an AED resets the heart so that its
electrical activity can resume its normal function and pump blood in
its normal rhythm.
Medical experts already know that the traditional CPR only buys the
SCA victim a little more time. While CPR can indeed keep open the
‘window of opportunity’ for survival for an extra minute or two, the
fact remains that Sudden Cardiac Arrest requires a shock from an AED
to restore a normal heart rhythm.
This is precisely why almost all new CPR courses offered by
hospitals and schools today provide AED training for their students.
It’s becoming part of basic medical training, not just for the
professional,
but for the layperson as well. In fact, the American Heart
Association, American Red Cross and the American Safety and Health
Institute, among others, have added AED training to their CPR
curriculum.
What makes AEDs so effective in treating SCA is that with their
simple, intuitive operation, they don’t have to be used by medically
trained personnel to be effective. In most emergencies, the first
people on the scene are lay people who may not be able to use
traditional defibrillators.
Since AEDs are by definition automated and designed to deliver the
appropriate shock correctly, they can be used by those lay first
responders to defibrillate the victim until emergency crews arrive.
AEDs have become so easy to use that even a young child can be
trained in minutes to save someone’s life. This means that lay
responders, even with minimal training, often make the difference
between life and death. Voice instructions guide the user through
the necessary steps. A computer inside the AED analyzes the
patient’s heart rate and determines if a shock is required. If the
victim
doesn’t need a shock, there are safeguards built into the unit so a
shock can’t be delivered.
Choosing an AED?
There are three key factors to consider when choosing an AED,
regardless of whether the responder ends up being an EMS
professional or a lay responder.
First, it must be easy and intuitive. Second, it must be technically
advanced and reliable. And last but not least, it must be reasonably
priced so that companies can purchase and place enough AEDs to
make them most effective.
AEDs have been placed in locations where Sudden Cardiac Arrest has a
high chance of striking — health centers, gyms, community centers,
corporate offices, any place that has a concentrated population
density. When minutes count and lives hang in the balance, not only
does the placement
of a AED make sense, more importantly, it can make that critical
difference between death and survival. FSM
Euna Kwon is director of Communications, David
Fritzsche is vice-president
of Sales, and Glenn W. Laub, MD, is CEO of Defibtech LLC. For more
information, go to www.defibtech.com or call 866.333.4206.
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