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

Danish businesses respond to “An Invitation to Save Lives”

More than 50 business representatives came to the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen in late October for a conference on cardiac arrest sponsored by the Danish Red Cross and Cardiac Science. Each year more than 3,500 people in Denmark fall victim to cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting; the survival rate is currently about 6 percent.

Anders Ladekarl, Secretary of the Danish Red Cross talked about the impact of cardiac arrest on families and businesses. Ladekarl told the audience that while 90 percent of Danes say they want to learn first aid, only one-third have taken first aid training. He recommended that businesses offer that training in the workplace as a benefit to employees and the community — and to the businesses themselves.

Two business leaders, Hans Boye Clausen, CEO of AP Pension and Lotte Marie Roesgaard, the human resources manager of the Comwell Hotel chain, talked about their companies’ experiences offering first aid training and installing automated external defibrillators. AP Pension recently donated a Powerheart AED G3 to a Copenhagen-area school. Dr. Fredrik Folke, of Herlev Hospital, covered the medical aspects of sudden cardiac arrest.

The conference included a presentation from a man who, only a month earlier, had survived sudden cardiac arrest. The 39-year-old man had collapsed while playing in a football (soccer) game. He was fortunate, he told the audience, that the referee was a paramedic and that there was an AED available just 300 yards from the field where the game was being played. The referee and others used the AED to restore his heartbeat. The rapid AED treatment saved his life — emergency medical services did not arrive at the field for 20 minutes.

The man told the audience at the embassy that he subsequently underwent surgery and received an implantable defibrillator — and that after recovering from his experience he donated a Powerheart AED G3 to his own soccer team.

Doing the numbers on cardiac arrest: AEDs tip the odds toward survival

Illustration of one of the AED statistics from Book of Odds.

The Book of Odds website recently ran the numbers on automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and revealed the following AED statistics:

There’s a 1 in 75.08 chance that someone experiencing cardiac arrest due to a pre-existing heart condition will be defibrillated by a quick-thinking bystander and a public-access AED. 1 in 1.32 (76%) of those victims will make it to the hospital, and 1 in 2 will live to be discharged. These are amazing numbers considering that when a cardiac arrest victim doesn’t receive the jolt from an AED, their odds of survival are only 1 in 15.63.

Impressed by the numbers? Book of Odds provides illustrations of all of its statistics, complete with a link so you can buy an image and its accompanying text printed on a t-shirt.

School AEDs: Defibrillators donated to Stockton, CA, high schools

Seven high schools in Stockton, CA, received automated external defibrillators (AEDs) from Dameron Hospital. The donations were spearheaded by Dr. Ramin Manshadi, working with the hospital, St. Jude Medical, and Cardiac Science.

Dameron Hospital donates Powerheart AED G3s to area high schools

Manshadi, a cardiologist, has worked for more than a year to put together the project that provided Cardiac Science Powerheart AED G3s to Stagg, Edison, Chavez, Franklin, Lincoln, St. Mary’s, and Bear Creek high schools and his alma mater, Elk Grove High School.

As part of the donation, staff in each high school will received training in cardio pulmonary resuscitation and AED use.

According to the Recordnet.com report on the donation, Texas and 11 other states have requirements for AEDs in schools. California is not one of those states, but Manshadi hopes to organize other communities to donate AEDs to as many as 90 percent of California’s schools.

You can see a KRCR-TV video report on the Stockton AED donation.

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