DefibExperts

By Beth Learn

Like many other medical devices, Automated External Defibrillators require a prescription. Does this mean your insurance company might cover some or all of the cost? Start by talking to your doctor.

Perhaps one day, AEDs will be available to buy right off the store shelf, much like a smoke detector or fire extinguisher. For the time being, however, the FDA is responsible for categorizing AEDs as medical devices requiring a prescription to purchase. Even after one is obtained, there are laws and strict guidelines on the federal, state and local level that govern their use.

There is one AED for which you do not need a prescription. The Phillips HeartStart OnSite AED has been given “over the counter” status by the FDA. You can purchase one for your home at any time without necessarily proving that your health requires one.

Why is there so much regulation when it comes to AEDs? For starters, there is voltage involved. Just imagine some silly teenagers getting their hands on those shock pads. Where there is a good use for a good thing, there will be people looking to misuse it. With the power to restart a heart, an AED could also be used to hurt a heart. Thus, the need for control and supervision.

The best way to obtain a prescription is to talk to your person doctor who will determine if you need one. If you do not have a doctor, you can obtain training and prescription combinations from sites such as the Emergency Responders Network.

If your insurance company declines to help with the cost, and denies your claim then resubmit the claim. You may need to ask several times, put it in writing, or even speak to someone in person, before they agree to help. Remind them that the cost of an AED is much less than more extensive hospital care.

By Beth Learn

Ventricular fibrillation – or “V-Fib” as it is often called – is the most common type of arrhythmia seen in victims of sudden cardiac arrest. The best type of shock for that particular rhythm malfunction during a heart attack requires bi-phasic technology.

Every single body is different. If an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) delivered the same shock level to each heart attack victim, it would hurt some, help others – or worse – accomplish nothing! The bi-phasic technology present in most types of defibrillators does two things: It measure a person’s bioelectrical impedence and then delivers a shock with the appropriate energy level.

Thin and fat people alike fall victim to cardiac arrest, but an obese person will have more impedence while the thin person will have less. The thicker a person’s flesh, the more it will prevent the shock wave from reaching the heart.

Lean tissue like muscle, bone, cartilage and eye balls transmits electricity faster than fatty tissue. Bi-phasic technology basically breaks each shock into two phases. When your AED says “analyzing,” it’s measuring how much energy it will take to reach the heart and shock it back into a normal rhythm.

AEDs that have this feature take fewer shocks to save a person’s life, usually around 2 before the heart responds. These machines can literally customize themselves to meet each person’s needs.

A defibrillator without bi-phasic abilities will have to deliver more shocks, taking more time to save precious lives. When this important option isn’t standard, the energy level is often raised to ensure success. This is good for the heavier individual, but big shocks are really hard on smaller bodies. Just like shoes, the same size does not fit all.

By Beth Learn

When you go to a basketball game, you cheer for your team. If you are a parent, you cheer for your child’s team and you pray for the other team to lose.

But when two teenage boys on opposing basketball teams found themselves in the same hospital for the same reason, the competitors became friends on the same team, both boys fighting for survival. The lines of competition dissolved as they commiserated together about the ultimate game of life and death.

Michael Warn and Kyle Bednar of Minnesota collapsed within just a few days of each other – Kyle, on May 29 at a graduation party and Michael, on June 2, 2009 at his basketball game. In both scary situations, onlookers called 911, began CPR and utilized nearby Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) while waiting for further help to arrive.

Both Michael and Kyle needed a shock from an AED to restart their hearts. Both of them ended up needing surgery, and both of them received implantable defibrillators. They became fast friends during recovery, and their families are now active in promoting AED awareness in their communities.

According to an article by Cardiac Science, Kyle’s mother, Lisa Bednar said, “If there hadn’t been a defibrillator, all the CPR in the world wouldn’t have saved Kyle. That’s what we were told by the doctors.”

Kyle’s lifesaving AED was hanging on a wall at the school where the graduation party was held. Michael was saved by an AED right outside the gym where he was playing basketball. When a victim experiences sudden cardiac arrest, the first five minutes are crucial. Valuable time is lost while waiting for paramedics. Do you know where the AED is at your school, gym, church, store…?

Thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, even Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are not exempt from scrutiny and fines. Manufacturers of AEDs are responsible for producing quality machinery, especially when those machines are meant to save lives.

When Cardiac Science Inc. failed to meet certain standards regarding quality control and documentation, they received a firm warning letter from the FDA. The letter didn’t refer to the safety of the defibrillators being produced by Cardiac Science, Inc. The letter was more concerned with procedures and paperwork.

Guidant was a medical device manufacturer that faced real criminal charges. According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release on April 10, 2010, Guidant pleaded guilty for not reporting defibrillator safety problems to the FDA. However, their problem device was an internal implantable defibrillator, not an AED. Medtronic is another company that ended up in court for faulty devices, and some are angry that Medtronic didn’t face stiffer penalties.

While implantable defibrillators can go out of control and shock the heart repeatedly without permission, Automated External Defibrillators are manually operated. The victim of sudden cardiac arrest is connected to the pads and then analyzed. The volunteer or rescuer is told whether or not the victim is shockable. They have control of the machine.

Nonetheless, error is always a remote possibility. The FDA has a website with contact information and “Device Advice.” If you need to report a glitch, first go to the manufacturer. If the manufacture of your AED can’t or won’t help you, then visit this website to report the problem.

By Bethany Learn

We live in a day and age where people can sue you for just about anything. Everyone knows that coffee is hot, but apparently you can make a million or two if you spill it on your lap and get burned, claiming you didn’t know it was hot.

This is why many people are reluctant to help others in time of need. We have to be careful, asking ourselves, “What if I do it wrong? What if this is a scam, and they want me to do it wrong, so they can sue me?” But you need to know that when it comes to giving CPR or using an Automated External Defibrillator on a dying person, you are protected by Good Samaritan Laws.

It was Jesus who told the parable of The Good Samaritan. It’s a story about a Jew who was beaten up by robbers and left to die. Three leaders from his own race and faith passed him by, not bothering to help. Then a Samaritan – a gentile, a “goy,” a member of another race and language – came by and bandaged his wounds, taking him to a safe place, and paying for his health care.

When you happen upon a situation where someone needs CPR or an AED, you may not know them or even be able to speak their language. You might panic and do everything wrong, but you will be protected from liability because you are being a Good Samaritan.

The Good Samaritan Laws protect you from litigation when your heart only wants to help another heart survive. When you extend your hand to help a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, or you seek to administer any type of first aid, as long as you are not deliberately seeking to do further damage, you will be safe. So go ahead and be a Good Samaritan.

By Bethany Learn

It was prime-time at the club that day. I was part of the after-work crowd focused on putting a long hard day of work behind and getting a good workout before heading home to help the kids with homework. Then a body hit the floor.

He was an overweight, middle-aged man who was always at the club, spending most of his time leaning on the weight equipment exercising his conversational skills with old buddies. Then he would move on to the exercise bike and watch a little ESPN while pedaling for about 20 minutes. He was a fixture, one of the regulars. Then he died.

Right there on the cardio room floor. One minute he was pedaling, and then he was grabbing his chest and falling sideways. Everyone stopped exercising. Sweaty people gathered around, stealing his air while a few ran downstairs to the front desk to call 911. Someone started doing CPR while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.

When it’s rush-hour in downtown, ambulances take longer. It was nearly 10 minutes before they got there and shocked him with their defibrillator. But it was too late. They loaded his lifeless body onto a stretcher, and other club members helped get his heavy body down the stairs. As I left the club, anxious to get home to hug my children, I overhead a tearful staff-member talking to his wife on the phone.

The next week, a shiny new Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) was hanging on the wall by the front desk. A wealthy member – one of that guy’s chatty old buddies – had donated it, placing a shiny gold plaque with his name next to it. Next time our club will be ready, but it’s too bad we weren’t ready for him.

By: Bethany Learn

Our homes are our shelters against the violence and craziness of the world. We go home to rest, to relax, to eat, and to spend time with those we love. You might count on the businesses you frequent having an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) in case you or your loved ones succumb to sudden cardiac arrest, but what about your own home?

We all know someone with heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. These friends and family are precious to you, and they spend time in your home with you. Here are three good reasons why you need an AED at home…

1. You don’t want to wait for an ambulance. If a loved one or guest falls victim to a heart attack in your own home, you have less than five minutes before the chance of survival goes down dramatically. You can equip your home with the same heart-shocking technology that the ambulance has, but your home AED will save your family sooner. Every minute counts in terms of how much damage results from cardiac arrest.
2. You don’t want to stand and watch while a loved one dies. While most heart attacks happen to adults over the age of 35, children can suffer from heart problems that lead to deathly situations, too. If you are a parent, you know you would regret not being able to do something to help your child in a extreme moment of crisis. Equip yourself to help, not be helpless.
3. You want your home to be a safe haven. Your family and friends trust that you have a basic first-aid kit in your medicine cabinet, working smoke detectors throughout your home, a carbon monoxide alarm if you have a gas furnace, perhaps even a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. These tools tell them you care about their safety, that you are prepared for anything. Imagine how much safer and comforting your neighbors, friends and family will feel if you buy an AED for your home.

By Bethany Learn

North Carolina state Rep. Becky Carney is grateful that an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) was available when she suffered a heart attack while on the phone at her Raleigh legislative office in April of 2009.

The life-threatening experience prompted Carney to start the Lucky Hearts Campaign which raises funds to distribute AEDs throughout Charlotte, North Carolina. Carney knows she was lucky, and she wants her city’s inhabitants to have the same second-chance that she was given. Unfortunately, almost a million people have heart attacks every year, and many of them take place in business offices without an AED in sight.

Meet the Press moderator, Tim Russert, was one of the unlucky ones. Russert died at age 58 in his office in June of 2008. He was a national political correspondent who went to work that fateful morning with no symptoms of his impending death. He died at 11 a.m. He had passed a stress test just two months prior.

Every 30 seconds in America, someone dies of a heart attack and many of those deaths happen where we spend most of our time: at work, in our offices. Famous people and laymen and women. Government employees and business executives. With stress being a key risk factor for sudden cardiac arrest, it only makes sense that heart attacks often happen on the job.

Purchasing an AED makes good business sense for offices large and small. An AED could save the life of an employee or a client. More importantly, the portable device is so easy to understand and operate that anyone can use it. Hanging an AED on the wall tells your workers and your partners that you care. You might save the life of your client, or your client might save yours. Either way, you will be able to keep doing business for years to come.

By Beth Learn

According to the American Heart Association, one in a thousand adults over age of 35 experience sudden cardiac arrest every year, so busy sports stadiums are a prime location for Automated External Defibrillators (AED). Hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors combined with the excitement of the arena atmosphere can turn huge stadiums and other meeting areas into havens for heart attacks.

Athletes or big-name speakers might be the center of attention at mass gatherings, but emotional spectators need heart help more often than the entertainment does. For this reason, the National Association of Emergency Medical Services Physicians (NAEMSP) recommends AED’s be available in stadiums.

Imagine thousands of fans sitting or standing on bleachers, cheering and yelling. Would one slumped-over person the middle of a crowded row up in the nosebleeds even be noticed? If the stadium was not equipped with an AED, how long would it take to get emergency personnel up to that person?

If the five-minute threshold is reached before that cardiac arrest victim receives a shock, death or brain death become more imminent. Every second counts to a heart that needs defibrillation. If nearby spectators are forced to wait for professional help to arrive, they are limited to CPR.

Sports stadiums should have several AED’s placed strategically on each level, and on either side of the stadium. Even an untrained sports spectator can follow the verbal or visual prompts to safely deliver a shock to a heart in irregular rhythm, but stadium staff should all be trained and able to use them.

Stadiums and mass gatherings have a focus, an agenda for entertainment. AED’s let everyone go home safe, keeping the winning team on the nightly news as opposed to the fan who fell victim to a heart attack and died in the middle of the game. If every one in one-thousand fans is at risk of having a heart attack, AED’s should be a priority.

By Beth Learn

Small children are the most tragic victims of heart problems, but having an Automated External Defibrillator at Casa Linda Elementary School in Texas saved one six-year-old’s life.

Emiliano Vela was still in kindergarten when he fell on the floor, gurgling and turning blue while his young classmates watched. The school nurse and P.E. Teacher ran for an AED, unsure if he was even shockable. He was, and his mother arrived on the scene in time to ride with her son to a local hospital in the ambulance.

“If the school hadn’t had the defibrillator, my son wouldn’t be here,” said Emiliano’s mama, Dalyla Vela. “If that machine wasn’t there, I would have lost him.”

About 7,000 children fall victim to cardiac arrest every year. Studies have shown that if a victim is shocked with an AED within one minute, their chance of survival goes from five percent to as high as 85-percent. If the victim can be shocked within three minutes, it drops to 70-percent. When AED’s are not within easy reach, nine minutes is the average time between the 911 call and the shock.

Emiliano’s elementary school had just recently received its AED along with 61 others dispatched to the Corpus Christi school system of Texas. Debbie Gilchrist, Student Health Services Coordinator for the system said that if she had to choose between furnishing fire extinguishers and AED’s, she’d choose the AED’s.

Gilchrist recommends looking to community fund-raising and donations to raise funds to purchase defibrillators in all schools. Budgeting is often very limited, with most money going to pay teacher salaries, education materials, and building maintenance. The immediate help in saving lives makes AED’s worth their purchase price.

Vela, Emiliano’s mother, said it best.“Everybody can have a cardiac arrest, no matter if you are two years old or 60 years old … We need AEDs in the libraries and in stores, everywhere.”