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A 67 year old man recently collapsed while boarding an airplane. While a doctor began CPR on the man, a flight attendant retrieved an automatic external defibrillator (AED) and delivered three shocks to the man’s chest. The man was revived and his life was saved.
Most airlines now keep AED medical equipment on hand in order to help such people. American Airlines began installing AED’s on its planes seven years ago, and it has saved 50 people’s lives in that time. Making automatic external defibrillators available in other public facilities could save even more lives.
These defibrillators have basic instructions so that average people with no medical training can operate them, and increase the chances of survival in people suffering from cardiac arrest. AED’s also have sensors that make sure that defibrillation is needed; that way, no unnecessary shocks are delivered.
In a recent study researchers went to 993 public places such as office buildings, sports facilities shopping malls and apartment buildings in the United States and Canada. They trained over 19,000 people in these facilities how to spot cardiac arrests and how to administer CPR. At half of the sites, researchers also taught people how to operate an automatic external defibrillator and stored these medical products on-site. All participants in both groups were instructed to call 911 first in the event of a cardiac arrest.
In the two years that followed, trainees at sites equipped with AED refurbished medical equipment resuscitated 29 people who had suffered cardiac arrest compared with only 15 people resuscitated by CPR only. With over 450,000 out-of-hospital deaths credited to cardiac arrest each year in the United States, every public facility could benefit from an automatic external defibrillator.
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