What better time than national CPR and AED Awareness Week to look at your community and ask “How heart-safe are we?”

• Are your schools, public buildings, swimming pools, and sports fields equipped with automated external defibrillators?

• Does your community require large and mid-size buildings where employees, members, or customers gather to have AEDs and an emergency response plan?

• Are your police patrol vehicles, often the first to arrive when an emergency occurs, equipped with defibrillators?

• Are your community service groups and other organizations offering CPR and AED training for their members?

• Are the AEDs in your community registered with emergency services, so a 911 operator can tell someone who calls to report a cardiac emergency where the nearest AED can be found?

Model PAD Programs

For several years, San Diego’s Project Heart Beat has served as a national model for public access defibrillation (PAD) programs in the U.S. Their goal has been to make AEDs accessible throughout their community. San Diego was one of the first cities to realize that AEDs are needed to address sudden cardiac arrest incidents in high-rise buildings because urban traffic and busy elevators can delay the arrival of paramedics.

States like Maine and Connecticut support public access defibrillation by establishing Heart Safe certification programs for communities. Typically, a Heart Safe community will have developed a chain of survival that includes 911 and emergency response systems, AED availability, citizens with CPR and AED certification, and ambulance programs that provide early advanced life support.

What you can do

Defibrillation within three minutes lifts the chance of survival from sudden cardiac arrest to 70 percent. If someone in your family collapsed at the local shopping mall, soccer field, or in front of the post office, could you get an AED to them that quickly?

If the answer to that question is “no,” we urge you to do something right away. Get in touch with parents, teachers, coaches, police and fire officials, and others in your community who have reason to be advocates for public access defibrillation. Greg Friese, paramedic and author, has let us share this great list of social media strategies that can help you raise CPR and AED awareness in your community.

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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