a big difference for people who are in a shockable rhythm, so now our charge is really – how do we make sure that people know where the devices are, and that they feel comfortable taking them off the wall or out of drawers and start using them?” said Merchant, who was not involved in the study. “The call to action here is that we have good science to show they work. Let’s get more people using them.”
An estimated 3,459 additional lives would be saved each year in the United States if every person who had a bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest in public received AED shocks from bystanders, according to the study.
The report noted an increase in availability of AEDs in public spaces over the years. Looking at the most recent data available, researchers cited an analysis by the Food and Drug Administration that found AED sales in the United States had increased tenfold from 1996-2006 “and this trend may have continued since.”
Heidi Stewart was 18 when she had a cardiac arrest at her high school. The school’s public access AED helped save her life. (Photo by American Heart Association)
Heidi Stewart was 18 when she had a cardiac arrest at her high school. The school’s public access AED helped save her life. (Photo by American Heart Association)
Stewart advocates for getting AEDs in more public spaces as well as making people comfortable with the idea of using them. She said the only reason her high school had a defibrillator five years ago when she suffered her cardiac arrest was because it had been donated by a local family struck by tragedy and aware of the device’s benefits.
“I know a lot of people view an AED as something scary or just feel it’s taboo to make an attempt to save a life if you’re not a medical expert,” Stewart said. “But it’s so easy to operate an AED. The thing talks to you. It has pictures showing you where to put the pads. It’s really so simple.
“It begins with one person, one bystander. You need to just try. I’m alive because someone decided to try.”
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