The leading cause of death in the United States is sudden cardiac arrest, and every year it claims approximately
300,000 lives. That is more than twice the population of Lancaster, Lebanon, Harrisburg and York combined.
Once cardiac arrest occurs, time is of the essence. Every second counts. And if cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is not started within the first few minutes of the heart stopping, the victim will almost certainly die.
There is a device that is proven to reverse that trend. But that is only if you know what it is, how to use it and where to find it.
An
automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable device that delivers an electric shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm during sudden cardiac arrest. You can find them in many public and private places where large groups of people gather; municipal buildings, schools, malls, etc. And they are amazingly simple to use.
“Basically the machines are dummy proof,” said Kathy Smyser, of the
American Red Cross of the Susquehanna Valley. “[The AED] talks you through the steps so clearly that anyone who is of a mind to help someone can use it.”
This time last year, that is about all Vincent DiFilippo knew about them.
“I don’t know a lot about the technical pieces of the AED,” DiFilippo told CBS 21 News. “Apparently they shock the heart to try to establish a rhythm. And in my case it worked.”
DiFilippo is a supervisor in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County. During a meeting in late-January of this year, DiFilippo died.
“I was in the middle of making a motion on an issue that we had, and the next the I know I feel a very rapid heart beat… and then I must have blacked out,” DiFilippo said about that night.
The audio recording of that meeting tells the story of what happened next.
A fellow supervisor can be heard crying out, “Vince! Vince! Oh my God. My God!”
When DiFilippo slumped over, a trained EMT, who just happened to be at the meeting, rushed forward.
“Does he have a pulse?” someone asked.
“No,” the EMT replied. “He does not.”
Amid the sound of shock from the crowd, a voice is heard calling for an ambulance for an unconscious patient. After the EMT had begun CPR, a Silver Spring police officer retrieved an AED from his squad car.
By the time the officer delivered the first shock with the AED, three-and-a-half minutes had passed.
“Sergeant Hippensteel activated the AED and got my heart back into rhythm and brought me back to life,” Difilippo said of how he was revived. Ultimately the supervisor was out for nine minutes. His story could have been very different.
The machine is about the size of a lunch box, and about as easy to use. George Zimmerman of the American Red Cross of the Susquehanna Valley
recently demonstrated for CBS 21 News how an AED works.Once you open its top, a voice prompt walks you through the procedure.
“I let the unit tell me what to do and I followed the directions,” Zimmerman said of how he administered a simulated shock to a training dummy. “As long as you follow the directions you are covered by the Good Samaritan Law.”
Pennsylvania’s
Good Samaritan Law was passed by the state legislature in 1998, and it removes all liability from someone who, acting in good faith, attempts to use an AED to revive a person in cardiac arrest.
At least 15 states have gone further, by requiring AEDs to be placed in buildings like schools or health clubs. That includes four of Pennsylvania’s six border states (Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio.) But Pennsylvania has not made the devices mandatory anywhere. In the early 2000s, Pennsylvania used millions of dollars from a tobacco company lawsuit settlement to make two AEDs available to every school district in the state. Many municipal buildings across Pennsylvania have an AED; that now includes Silver Spring Township’s municipal building. A donation from a private citizen allowed the township to purchase one in the spring, following Supervisor DiFilippo’s incident. It is now mounted on the wall in the supervisor’s meeting room.
There is an effort, however, to expand the availability of AEDs here in the Keystone State.
House Bill 1803, which has been stuck in a conference committee since the state budget saga began in mid-summer, would require all PA school districts to make AED and CPR training available to all school personnel every three years, as well as requiring an AED to be placed in every school building in the state.
But even in the places where AEDs are currently located, there is a concern that, because they’re not mandatory, not enough people are aware of them.
“I believe people know what they are,” Kathy Smyser told CBS 21 News. “I don’t know that they always know where they are.”
George Zimmerman told CBS 21 News that there have been many occasions when he went to check up on the AEDs that his organization has provided to businesses over the years that the devices were either not working properly or not accessible.
“We have found them with dead batteries,” Zimmerman said. “There was also a health care facility where, when we asked to see the AED, they had it locked in a closet.” When Zimmerman asked why it was locked up instead of being available for easy use, the CPR instructor said that a nurse told him they were afraid someone would steal the device.
Earlier this week, CBS 21 News went to the most public building in the state; the Capitol building in Harrisburg. A representative from Capitol Police said that there is an AED located on every floor of the main Capitol building. But don’t try finding them on the emergency maps (that identify the position of emergency exits and fire extinguishers) located throughout the facility; they are not listed.
While standing in front of a wall-mounted AED, we asked every state worker who passed through the East Wing of the Capitol during a fifteen minute period if they knew where the AEDs were. Even after we explained what the device was, not a single person recognized the AED on the wall, and none of them knew where to find one.
If someone cannot find an AED, people could die. People like Vincent DiFilippo.
“[The doctors at the hospital] said, ‘You were at the right place at the right time,’” DiFilippo said. “Had CPR not been started, had there not been an AED, I wouldn’t be here.”
If you want to see how you can save a life, watch George Zimmerman’s
AED demonstration.
