Nancy Hunger is on a mission to get defibrillators in every business, church, school, library and government office in Oxford.
‘Wherever there are large gatherings and people could collapse and go into cardiac arrest,? said Hunger, who’s the EMS Coordinator for the Oxford Fire Dept.
On the local level, Hunger is trying to implement the American Heart Association’s Public Access Defibrillation program. She will be speaking about it at the Rotary Club of Oxford’s Tuesday, Oct. 30 meeting at Oxford Hills Golf & Country Club.
‘The idea is to get defibrillators out in the public,? Hunger said.
Currently, only a few locations in Oxford ? Meijer, Thermo-Vac, Inc., high and middle schools ? have what are called automated external defibrillators (AED).
AEDs are portable defibrillators that can be immediately used by almost anyone in the event of a cardiac arrest to electrically shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.
Most often, sudden cardiac arrest is caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation which prevents the heart from pumping blood.
The only treatment is defibrillation.
Although it is recommended that anyone who’s going to be operating an AED take a training class which includes learning CPR (see related story), Hunger said it’s not complicated to use one should the need arise.
‘It’s so easy,? she said. ‘You open it up and it tells you what to do. It shows you pictures of where to put the pads (electrodes). It tells you when to shock them.?
With the press of a button, the defibrillator automatically delivers a shock of 360 joules of electricity, which cannot be increased or decreased manually.
It also has a built-in heart monitor that only allows the operator to administer a shock only if it reads ventricular fibrillation (or ventricular tachycardia, a potentially life-threatening arrhythmia that can lead to ventricular fibrillation) in the victim.
‘If it doesn’t read that, you can’t override it and make a mistake,? Hunger said. ‘It will not let you shock somebody unless they need it. You can’t hurt somebody.?
How important is it to have an AED in workplaces and establishments frequented by the public?
Every year, at least 250,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest before they reach a hospital.
For every minute without immediate CPR and defibrillation, the odds of survival decrease by seven to 10 percent.
But in instances where the victim is provided immediate CPR and shocked with a defibrillator within three minutes after collapse, the survival rates are as high as 74 percent.
The biggest argument Hunger hears against purchasing an AED is that the fire department is ‘always there? when it’s needed.
‘Yeah, we are, but there may come a time when we have a big fire north of town and if somebody goes down, it’s going to take us a few minutes to get there,? she explained. By the time paramedics arrive, it may be too late.
Ventricular fibrillation lasts three to five minutes and that’s how much time there is to potentially save a victim with defibrillation after they collapse from cardiac arrest.
‘Anything after that is asystole, it won’t do anything, you’re pretty much a goner,? Hunger said.
Asystole is a state of no cardiac electrical activity when the heart will not respond to defibrillation.
With an AED on-site, it can be a whole different story.
‘They can grab it off the wall, slap the patches on and start defibrillating a patient even before we get there,? Hunger said.
On average, AEDs cost about $1,500 and a physician’s authorization is required to obtain one for public use.
Hunger said she can help businesses and public institutions purchase AEDs. ‘There are grant programs available,? she said.
She can also help get authorization for an AED from POH Medical Center. To learn more contact Hunger at (248) 969-9483.