Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) were part of the preparation for the first public tours of the devastated central business district in Christchurch, New Zealand. On Feb. 22, 2011, a 6.3 earthquake just six miles from New Zealand’s second largest city killed 185 people and injured hundreds of others.

Coming just months after a 7.1 quake in the same region, the quake demolished already weakened structures, liquified the ground in entire neighborhoods, and forced closure of the city’s central business distract.

Red Cross safety officers with Powerheart G3 AEDs for the tour buses.

In the past year, the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) has evaluated all the business district structures, and has slated many, including churches and historic buildings, for demolition. Beginning in December 2011, Project Olive gave members of the public their first opportunity to enter the Red Zone and see the demolition and restoration work in progress.

The New Zealand Red Cross helped organized the Project Olive bus tours, equipping each vehicle with a safety officer trained in First Aid and a Powerheart G3 AED. Safety procedures for the public tour into the still-hazardous demolition area were strict, requiring sturdy, closed shoes. Each bus was followed by a car in case a passenger needed to be removed from the Red Zone before the tour ended.

Daniel Tobin, and NZ News Service reporter who took the 40-minute silent tour (audio was available on personal media players, but users had to wear earphones), wrote about “the broken heart of the city” near the six-storey Canterbury Television building, where 115 people died.

The February 2011 earthquake, and subsquent quakes in June 2011 and December 2011, have resulted in heightened awareness of emergency preparedness and emergency response in New Zealand. For more information on first aid equipment and AEDs in New Zealand, please contact the New Zealand Red Cross.

September 29 is World Heart Day, a time to focus attention on what can be done to promote heart health and prevent cardiac disease. Heart disease and stroke are the world’s leading cause of death, claiming 17.1 million lives each year.

Across the globe people are holding events, conducting health screenings, and attending conferences on topics like healthy diet and exercise, cardiovascular research, cardiac rehabilitation, and heart-safe communities.

Here at Cardiac Science we’re thinking about the people we work with, all over the world, who are making their communities heart safe by installing automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Communities that create a chain of survival (awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, available AEDs, CPR- and AED-trained citizens, and well-prepared emergency services and hospitals) can increase survival rates for witnessed sudden cardiac arrest — usually about 5 percent — to as high as 50 percent.

Here are just a few of the innovative AED programs launched in recent months:

Escola Básica Integrada da Boa Água AED program, in Sesimbra (Setubal), Portugal. In December, 2010, this became the first school in Portugal to install an AED. The school, which has some 800 students, is equipped with a Cardiac Science Powerheart AED G3 and 12 school staff members have been trained by Med First and certified in AED use.

The University of Otago AED program in New Zealand. Twenty-five new AEDs were installed on campus and staff were encouraged to attend one-hour training courses offered by the New Zealand Red Cross.

The municipal PAD program in Girona, Spain. Girona launched the largest public access defibrillation (PAD) program in Spain with a purchase of 650 AEDs and more than 250 “intelligent” AED cabinets.

An innovative car-based AED program in the Czech Republic. In Prague, Powerheart AED G3s are deployed in Smart cars that can travel quickly throughout the city, even on the narrow streets of Prague’s Old Town.

AED training in Columbia, S.A. Proyecto Latir (“Project Heartbeat”) offers free CPR/AED training courses for private companies, hospitals, and government agencies.

A $10 million PAD program in Ontario, Canada. Government funds were allocated to put AEDs in public settings including hockey arenas, recreation centres, and high-activity schools in the province.

A map of the campaign to put AEDs at football clubs throughout Victoria.

Heart-safe sports fields throughout Victoria, Australia. Football clubs have taken the lead by raising more than $150,000 in private funding to equip sports facilities with AEDs.

Project Heartsafe, developed by Great Plains Ag Credit to increase heart safety in Texas. This group recently provided more than 70 Powerheart AED G3s to first responders and key public safety agencies in the Texas Panhandle.

Awareness of the effectiveness of a community-based approach to heart safety is spreading across the globe. World Heart Day is an ideal time to find out more about what you, your school, your workplace, and your community can do to prevent needless deaths from sudden cardiac arrest.

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

The Casey Weekly news site reports that $150,000 in private funds has been pledged to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for football clubs in Victoria, Australia.

A map of the campaign to put AEDs at football clubs throughout Victoria.

An AED campaign with the slogan “Defib your club, for life” began May 28. It marked the one-year anniversary of the death of local footballer Stephen Buckman. Buckman, 19, collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) during training. Paramedic Andrew White, who plays for the same Rupertswood club as Buckman, had attempted to resuscitate his teammate, but was unsuccessful. No AED was available.

That experience led White to lobby the government and businesses for AEDs. In the year since Buckman’s death, two other Victoria football figures, one a coach and one a 22-year-old player, have died of sudden cardiac arrest at their clubs.

Cardiac Science is a proud sponsor of the “Defib Your Club, for Life” campaign, joining more than a dozen national, regional, and local organizations in the effort to reduce deaths from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in Victoria.

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

The premier of Ontario has announced a $10 million fund to deploy automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the province. Premier Dalton McGinty said the $10 million in Ontario AED funding will focus on placing AEDs in public access settings such as hockey arenas, recreation centres and high-activity schools.

The Ontario AED funding follows on an April announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper of a $10 million national AED fund to place AEDs in hockey arenas and recreation centers across the country.

Ontario announces a $10 million fund for AEDs in hockey arenas and other public places.

According to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation’s position statement, as many as 45,000 Canadians die from sudden cardiac arrests (SCA) each year. Sudden cardiac arrest is also the leading cause of death in young athletes during sports. The availability and use of AEDs in recreational facilities such as sports arenas has been shown to dramatically increase survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest. As a result, hockey arenas in Canada and the U.S. have been a focus of defibrillator placement programs.

McGinty’s announcement “brings us one step closer to our dream of seeing life-saving AEDs become as commonplace as fire extinguishers in Ontario,” said David Sculthorpe, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.

Survival from sudden cardiac arrest decreases by 7 percent to 10 percent for each minute that passes without defibrillation. Defibrillation, when used in conjunction with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the first three minutes, lifts the chance of survival to 70 percent.

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

As we recently reported, Cardiac Science won the contract for the first major public access defibrillation program in Spain. Spain becomes the first European country to have a wide network of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to act immediately in sudden cardiac arrest emergencies.

According to Dipsalut, Public Health organization of the Girona Council (Organismo de Salud Pública de la Diputación de Girona), today only two survive out of every hundred people who suffer a sudden death in the street. It is estimated that the installation of defibrillators for public use can increase the survival rate to 20 or 25 percent.

Dipsalut presented the Cardiac Science AED G3 Plus defibrillator in a briefing with mayors of the province at Technology Park of Girona. Dipsalut introduced the “Girona cardioprotegit territory,” the network of up to 650 defibrillators for public use in the municipalities of the province.

The network will include 500 “intelligent” AED cabinets. When someone opens a cabinet to access an AED, a signal is automatically sent to alert the local emergency medical response team.

Most of the fully automatic Cardiac Science AEDs will be deployed in streets or public squares. Other defibrillators will be used to protect high-risk facilities such as sports centers, train stations, airports and bus stations.

See a video of the Girona cardioprotegit territory event:

In Colombia, Cardiac Science distributor Incav Technologies has launched Proyecto Latir (“Project Heartbeat”), providing free CPR/AED training courses to help people respond to sudden cardiac arrest.

Dr. Cesar Rodriguez, scientific director for the Proyecto Latir, on one of the projects AED training videos on YouTube.

“In its first year, Proyecto Latir has taught dozens of courses to private companies, hospitals and government agencies,” says Diego Orjuela, managing partner with Incav Colombia. “Proyecto Latir  seeks to give back to our community. We find there is an enormous need for basic CPR and trauma training in a country that is vulnerable to violence as well as natural catastrophes. We have offered free training in a number of key public buildings in Colombia’s capital city, Bogota.”

Dr. Cesar Rodriguez, a leading authority on resuscitation, serves as scientific director for the project. Dr. Rodriguez is a certified instructor in BLS, ACLS, ACLS EP, PALS, PHTLS, PHTLS for Military, NALS, Fenix III, Advanced Trauma, and Obstetric and Pediatric Trauma. He has taught more than 300 CPR and Trauma courses in Colombia alone.

Proyecto Latir recently conducted an advanced CPR course for nurses in one of Colombia’s leading hospitals, Clinica el Country. Learn more about Proyecto Latir on its YouTube channel.

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

As we recently reported, Cardiac Science won the first major public access defibrillation program in Spain. Spain becomes the first European country to have a wide network of defibrillators to act immediately in sudden cardiac arrest emergencies.

According to Dipsalut, Public Health organization of the Girona Council (Organismo de Salud Pública de la Diputación de Gerona), today only two survive out of every hundred people who suffer a sudden death in the street. It is estimated that the installation of defibrillators for public use can increase the survival rate to 20 or 25%.

Dipsalut presented the Cardiac Science AED G3 Plus defibrillator in a briefing with Mayors of the province at Technology Park of Girona. Dipsalut introduced the “Girona cardioprotegit territory,” the network of up to 650 defibrillators for public use in the municipalities of the province.

See a video of the Girona cardioprotegit territory event:

Powerheart AED G3 is used in a simulated AED rescue in Prague. (Photo: ZZS hl. města Prahy)

The city of Prague in the Czech Republic has purchased 70 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to make it possible to rescue people stricken with sudden cardiac arrest. As part of this program, the Special Forces of the City have placed Powerheart AED G3s in Smart cars.  These Smart cars respond rapidly to emergencies throughout the city, traveling even on the famously narrow streets of the Old Town.

The AEDs are deployed with the city’s rescue services, police department and fire department.

Cardiac Science is involved in AED placement throughout Europe, including the rollout of the first public access defibrillation (PAD) program in the region.

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

Expect Girona (700,000 population, 221 municipalities) to be a little safer thanks to Cardiac Science and Distributor MC Infotecnica.

With its order of 650 automated external defibrillators (350 will be deployed in April), Girona introduces publicly accessible defibrillation to Spain in a major way. In fact, with this initiative, Spain becomes the first European country to have a wide network of defibrillators to act immediately in sudden cardiac arrest emergencies.

Demonstration of the operation of a defibrillator (simulation of action in case of cardiac arrest).

Dipsalut, Public Health organization of the Girona Council (Organismo de Salud Pública de la Diputación de Gerona), estimates more than 3,000 Catalonians die from cardiac arrest each year. A defibrillating shock, administered within one minute after cardiac arrest increases the chance of survival to 90 percent, according to the European Resuscitation Council.

Dipsalut worked closely with the Brugada Foundation, the University of Girona Faculty of Medicine, and the Emergency Medical System of Catalonia on the tender.

Cardiac Science won the extremely competitive tender offer versus competitors Zoll, GE, Philips, Defibtech, and Schiller.

Cardiac Science Area Manager Jacob Kleberg explains, “We had to convince the scientific committee about the advantages of a fully automatic AED (our Cardiac Science AED G3 Plus) for the publicly accessible defibrillation (PAD) program. We succeeded – so much so they now are looking to update local Cataluña legislation to direct future PAD programs to choose fully automatic AEDs.” Mr. Kleberg credits Distributor MC Infotecnica for their collaboration on the tender.

Dipsalut also purchased 250 of its 500 “intelligent AED cabinet” order. Like most AED cabinets, intelligent AED cabinets protect and store the AED when it is not in use. What makes these AED cabinets “intelligent” is this: Once the cabinet is opened, a signal is automatically sent to local emergency medical response teams to speed their time to the scene.

Most of the fully automatic Cardiac Science AEDs will be deployed in streets or squares (at the rate of one per district plus one additional for each 10.000 inhabitants). Other defibrillators will be used to protect high-risk facilities such as sports centers, train stations, airports or bus.

In addition, roughly 20 percent of the defibrillators will go to emergency services (police AEDs, civil defense AEDs, emergency AEDs, ambulance AEDs).

The Cardiac Science AED G3 Pro is approved for rigorous military operations, and was awarded Airworthiness Release (AWR) from the U.S. Army’s Research, Development, and Engineering Command for the Powerheart AED G3 Pro automated defibrillator. The certification indicates the Powerheart AED G3 Pro complies with U.S. Department of Defense medical device certification criteria and is tested for use in air, sea, and land operations.

In the video below, the US and Chinese Coast Guard are using the Cardiac Science AED G3 Automatic in a military exercise near Shanghai. The exercise is designed to ready the troops for a cardiac arrest emergency on sea.

Three fall into the water. The US and Chinese Coast Guard use a boat and helicopter to rescue them. One of the “victims” requires cardiac resuscitation. All three are brought to safety.