Heart safe news: Our weekly update on what’s happening in the world of heart safety and noninvasive cardiology

AED training at the top

Last week top officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Secretary Janet Napolitano, took CPR and AED training from the American Red Cross. According to the Homeland Security news release, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are recommended for use in all federal buildings. This was the first year the Red Cross provided this type of training to federal officials in Washington, D.C. This video shows the training and includes Napolitano’s comments. (Photo credit: Barry Bahler/ DHS)

School AEDs: Atlanta public schools partner with Cardiac Science

Cardiac Science Powerheart G3 AEDs now protect 102 locations in the Atlanta public schools system, thanks to a school AED partnership that started in 2007. Atlanta Public Schools’ Police Department officials worked with distributor School Health Corporate and Cardiac Science to drive AED adoption.

The program, expanded last week with an additional 195 Powerheart AED G3 devices, is receiving coverage on international technology websites and well as in Atlanta-area blogs like FultonFrontPage.com.

AEDs save lives at racetrack, on the highway, and in schools

Canadian horseman Roger Hamm was revived by medics with an automated external defibrillator (AED) after collapsing from sudden cardiac arrest after a harness race at Hiawatha Horse Park in Sarnia, Ontario, August 20. Hamm had just completed a qualifying race when he fell from his sulky onto the track.

Track medics brought the racetrack defibrillator and administered a shock that revived him. A week later his wife reported that he was recovering and was expected to return home.

“The defibrillators are life savers,” Linda Hamm told Trot Insider.  “I think everybody that was there can now say that they have seen the machines’ effectiveness first-hand.”

In Bandera, Texas, employees of Bandera Electric Cooperative used an AED in their service truck to revive a driver who had collapsed and veered off the highway. The rescuers performed CPR and then attached AED sensors to the victim’s chest.

“The AED ‘talked’ to us and told us to stand clear while it delivered a shock. After the shock, the device told us to begin administering CPR,” Ross told the Bandera County Courier.

Because of the hazards of doing work on electric power lines, many electric utilities and electric cooperatives equip their service trucks with first aid kids and AEDs.

A Memphis firefighter was rescued by an AED not at the scene of a fire or emergency but in the office of his children’s middle school. Kenneth Richman, 41, was picking his children up for a dentist appointment Aug. 18 when he collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest. Another parent at the school, who happened to be a nurse, began CPR while the school’s assistant principal deployed the school AED and followed the directions to administer a shock.

Richman, who received additional shocks after paramedics arrived, was taken to a hospital where he was treated and received an implantable defibrillator. Assistant principal Jeremy Yow told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the school had purchased the AED last year; the paper reports that as of July 2008, all Shelby County schools have defibrillators.

“If they didn’t have the AED to shock me, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Richmond told the newspaper.

Related Products

• Powerheart AED G3 Plus
• Powerheart AED G3 Fully Automatic and Semi-automatic
• Powerheart AED G3 Pro
• Powerheart AED G3 Trainer
• AED Program Management

Last 5 posts

• Cardiac Science AEDs in Spain [VIDEO] - April 4th, 2011
• Cardiac Science wins first major public access defibrillation program in Europe - March 30th, 2011
• Georgia Park saves 5 lives with AEDs - March 24th, 2011
• Sad stories, avoidable deaths? - March 23rd, 2011
• Texas school's AED saves 6-year-old's life - March 22nd, 2011

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