PUSH TO EXPAND HEART DEFIBRILLATORS IN SCHOOLS, AIRPORTS AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATORS LET ANYONE SAVE CHILDREN ADULTS WHEN HEART STOPS
Automatic external cardiac defibrillators have become ubiquitious at airports and other public venues. Countless lucky people have been saved by the quick application of automatic external defibrilllators. And amazingly most of those using the cardiac defibrillators have not been doctors but average citizens who were not trained in using a defibrillator. A businessman is walking thru the airport when he suddenly falls over with cardiac arrest. His heart has stopped beating. Rushing to his side a passerby realizes the man may be in cardiac arrest. His heart has stopped beating properly. Mounted on a nearby wall is a machine called an automatic external defibrillator. The passerby puts the two electrical pads from the AED on the man's chest, one on his right and the other on the left side. Pushing a button causes the defibrillator to analyze the man's cardiac status. A computer voice shouts from the machine "administer shock". Zap! The heart starts beating. A life has been saved. Now a grass-roots push is on to to put heart defibrillators into every school to revive children who suffer cardiac arrest as well as their teachers, custodians and visiting family members. Surprisingly, adults and children get cardiac arrest. "In Ohio, 13 lives have been saved with school cardiac defibrillators since 2005. In New York, 38 lives have been saved since 2002."
In a witnessed cardiac arrest (someone sees it happen), the heart stops beating properly. The heart electrical rhythm is erratic so that the heart doesn't pump properly. The most treatable heart rhythm is something called ventricular fibrillation. In ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles, which are the main pumping chambers of the heart, are beating in an uncoordinated fashion. So the blood can't be distributed correctly to the rest of the body and the brain and so the person may collapse.
Like Walter Mitty, in James Thurber's, Secret Life of Walter Mitty who has not harbored a secret fantasy? A fantasy where through their heroic intervention, a beautiful woman, a precious child, the boss of the company is saved from a tragic fate? The automatic external heart defibrillator may just put that life saving power in the average man's hands.
Time is of the Essence: Automatic Cardiac Defibrillator to the Rescue
To save the person's life, time is of the essence, the sooner the person having "v fib" gets the correct shock, the higher the probability that they will make a full recovery. But most of the time, it takes a while for any ambulance crew,no matter how diligent, to arrive. Precious minutes are being wasted. But what if anyone, even someone with no medical background was nearby? The beauty of the AED, is that it figures out if the person is having a heart electrical problem and it tells you whether a shock is needed! Besides having illustrations to guide you in pad placement the AED talks to you and tells you what to do.
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