Help When Your Heart Stops
by Barbara Jean Briskey

Sudden cardiac arrest (abrupt loss of heart function) used to precede sudden death and a tragic funeral. Despite improvements, the current rate for sudden death due to cardiac arrest is still 330,000 deaths per year, higher than that for breast cancer. It doesn't have to stay that way. With the 21st-century technology of automated external defibrillators or AEDs, and with dedicated health educators who make CPR and AED training accessible to everyone, deaths can be dramatically reduced. Some statistics suggest that, if CPR is initiated immediately and an AED used quickly to shock the arrested heart back into a functional rhythm, the death rate can be reduced by 90 percent. (Emergency treatment should of course be followed by advanced cardiac care.)

While most people who experience sudden cardiac arrest have a history of heart disease, 20 percent (66,000) of deaths each year occur in people who have never experienced symptoms, including healthy athletic teens and young adults. A seemingly minor illness, an undiagnosed structural problem, a hard blow to the chest, or a rare rhythm disturbance can all trigger sudden cardiac arrest. Our community has been deeply affected over the past few years by young people suffering sudden cardiac arrest and death—I still miss seeing my neighbor, who was also my son's math teacher at Red Hook High School, walking in the evenings with his young family.

Spearheading a local effort to increase access to AEDs and education about CPR/AEDs is the Heart Safe Club at Rhinebeck High School. While Heart Safe's mission—to promote AED support throughout the community, raise funds, and provide low-cost AED training—is public, the reason for its existence is personal. Linda Cotter-Forbes and Pat O'Malley are the parent advisors of the Heart Safe Club. Linda's daughter Kaitlin, who was getting over a cold that no one realized had morphed into pneumonia, suffered sudden cardiac arrest on the softball field during gym class in May of 2005. Due to access to an AED and the immediate response of Kaitlin's gym teachers Mike Piccione and Ron Keefe and school nurse Bonnie Murphy, Kaitlin survived to help start the Heart Safe Club. Pat's daughter, Maggie O'Malley, another Rhinebeck High School athlete, was not so fortunate: she died of sudden cardiac arrest at home the following year. These two events clarified for the students' friends the importance of immediate access to AEDs and having more people trained to use them. The Heart Safe Club has helped make Rhinebeck a Heart Safe community. Due to Heart Safe's efforts, every municipal building in Rhinebeck has an automated defibrillator and employees working in those buildings are trained to use them.

Access to AEDs is also growing through increased public awareness of the benefits and from legislation to promote training, access, and use. Since 2002, public schools have been required to have at least one AED and one staff person trained to use it on site. Red Hook High School now has several AEDs on site—one in the main lobby, one in the gym, the nurse's office, one centrally in the school, and an extra in the main office. Several people are trained to use them. Where else can AEDs be found? According to Investigator Cotter of the New York State Police at Troop K headquarters, every marked troop car is equipped with an AED and each trooper is trained to use it. Each State Police Headquarters has an AED and all staff are trained in its use. Ambulances carry them. Health clubs, gyms, and places where large groups of people congregate (e.g.. the Fisher Center at Bard College) also have AED machines.

As AED's become more accessible, it is important that more people be trained to use them. The machines are simple to use, but the six-hour CPR/AED class will teach important rules about when AED use is appropriate. Most classes include practical application on life-sized dolls. One of the biggest barriers to people performing CPR is the expectation that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation will be needed. Research has shown that, in sudden cardiac arrest scenarios, CPR chest compressions with rapid use of an AED when indicated are much more important to saving a life than mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. AED machines are truly easy to use (the unit talks you through the procedure step-by-step), and, while it is important to become certified before using one, the average ten-year-old can learn how to do CPR and use the AED machine. And children as young as five should be taught when to call 911, the first step in any emergency cardiac event.

So many cases of sudden cardiac arrest are completely unpredictable. We can limit many of these early tragic deaths by becoming prepared. For more information on AEDs, CPR, and how you can become certified, check out maggieomalley.org, americanheart.org, dutchesscounty.redcross.org, or e-mail heartsafeclub@frontiernet.net.