Emergency Cardiac Care News Digest is an assortment of current events and news related to emergency cardiac care and resuscitation. Produced by Code One Training Solutions, Emergency Cardiac Care News Digest is published every Friday throughout the year.
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
Muhammad Ali
Healthy, Active 54-Year-Old Survives Cardiac Episode: Here’s His Message to Other Men
When 54-year-old Steve George started having chest pain, a heart attack wasn’t anywhere on his radar. Steve regularly took bootcamp classes, lifted weights, mainly ate heart-healthy foods and maintained a healthy weight. But when he went into cardiac arrest, his life changed forever.
Steve George, 54, leads a healthy, active life, working out regularly and eating healthy foods. Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, started like any other day for Steve. He took his dog for a two-mile walk and then lifted weights in his garage. As he prepared a salad for lunch, he noticed tightness in his chest.
He joked to his wife that it felt like he was having a heart attack, because having a cardiac event wasn’t even on his radar, given his healthy lifestyle. Steve chalked it up to muscle tightness from his recent workout and went upstairs to his home office for a call.
About an hour and a half later, his wife heard a thud on the floor upstairs. Knowing Steve had mentioned tightness in his chest earlier in the day, she rushed upstairs and found him on the floor gasping for air.
More: https://atriumhealth.org/dailydose/2024/01/30/healthy-man-cardiac-episode
Women less likely to receive bystander defibrillation than men, Victorian study finds Women who have a cardiac arrest in Victoria are only half as likely as men to receive defibrillation from a bystander.
That is according to a recent Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and Ambulance Victoria study that examined the role of bystanders in more than 32,500 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
A defibrillator is a device that uses electricity to restart the heart or shock it back into a normal rhythm.
The research, which analysed data from 2002 to 2021 from the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry, showed just 5 percent of women who had a cardiac arrest received defibrillation from a bystander, compared to 10 per cent of men.
A defibrillator uses electricity to restart the heart or shock it back into a normal rhythm.(Supplied: Emily Mood)
The gender disparity findings are despite all Australian states and territories having laws that protect bystanders acting in good faith during medical emergencies.
ENCORE- Public access defibrillation is a failed strategy
Editorial- Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine Article
Bystander use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) is a time-sensitive critical intervention that can improve survival for patients who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Since the advent of AED technology several decades ago, significant resources have been expended on raising public awareness and making them publicly accessible under the assumption that doing so would result in earlier defibrillation and improved survival. In many communities, the strategy of “public access defibrillation” has been the singular approach to facilitate early defibrillation for individuals experiencing OHCA. The study published by Li et al. in this volume of CJEM is one more piece of evidence suggesting that ad hoc deployment of public access defibrillators without central coordination, oversight or accountability, is a failed strategy.
See the full article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43678-023-00633-9
ENCORE- Response to article “Public access defibrillation is a failed strategy”
A review and discussion of Dr. Steven Brooks’ engaging editorial “Public access defibrillation is a failed strategy” published earlier this month in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine.
See the entire response here: https://code1web.com/learning-center/response-to-article-public-access-defibrillation-is-a-failed-strategy/
Indiana lawmakers advance bill requiring rescue equipment on Lake Michigan
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – A beach bill unanimously passed by an Indiana Senate committee today has a familiar “ring” to it. The measure would require the installation of ring life buoys on Lake Michigan piers and public access points. Supporters figure Indiana has about 26 miles of publicly accessible beach in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties. The goal is to have one life ring every quarter mile.
“If somebody goes into this vertical posture where they’re actively drowning, they are pawing with their hands at their side, barely breaking the surface, mouth at water level, head tilted back. That person is going to submerge in less than a minute, so they need something that floats immediately on the spot,” said Dave Benjamin with the non-profit Great Lakes Surf and Rescue Project. “And you can’t call 911 because, by the time they arrive, it’s going to be a body recovery. You have to have floatation in the moment and readily available.”
Benjamin compares the situation to the widespread presence of automated external defibrillators, or AEDs. “Think of it like this: If you were to go into any, you know, public building, there’s an AED in those public buildings, and now it’s required. If there’s a football game, or cross country, you know, sporting event, you have to have AEDs there so, automatic external defibrillator, in case someone has a sudden cardiac arrest. Okay, this is the same thing,”
See the full story: https://www.wndu.com/2024/01/29/indiana-lawmakers-advance-bill-requiring-rescue-equipment-lake-michigan/
Simsbury Begins Strategic Placement of 24/7 Access AEDs in Parks
Simsbury was able to put this first unit in after years of evaluation and seeing how other municipalities have been able to safely and securely store defibrillators outdoors.
“We thought it was important to make these available. Anything we can do to keep our residents safe and have someone come back again that’s what we want to do. We want to take care of people,” Tyburski said.
With other AEDs in buildings that might be locked after hours, this allows quick access whenever it’s needed.
And with lots of courts nearby, there are people of different ages doing activities and something could happen at anytime.
“Just the more and more we can get attention for the need for them out in the outdoor places the better off we’ll be,” Boswell said.
Video coverage: https://www-nbcconnecticut-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/simsbury-installs-its-first-outdoor-aed/3206835/?amp=1
ENCORE-The American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2030 Impact Goals and Call to Action to Improve Cardiac Arrest Outcomes
Despite significant advances in research, education, clinical practice, and community-based programs, survival from cardiac arrest remains low.
Significant disparities also exist in cardiac arrest outcomes.
Top Things to Know: https://professional.heart.org/en/science-news/the-aha-ecc-2030-impact-goals-and-call-to-action-to-improve-cardiac-arrest-outcomes/top-things-to-know
Link directly to the Scientific Statement in Circulation: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epdf/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001196
Heart In The Park: Unveiling Of AED’s In Branford Parks Valentine’s Day
On Feb. 14 celebrate with town as AED’s will be placed at Branford parks, outdoor rec areas: “You can help restart a heart and save a life.”
BRANFORD, CT — “You can help restart a heart and save a life,” is the motto.
On Valentine’s Day, the town’s Board of Recreation and Parks and Recreation Department celebrates an initiative that can save lives.
The event at the Joe Trapasso Community House’s Hammer Field Feb. 14 at 9:30 a.m., features the unveiling of Automated External Defibrillators, called AED’s, that will be housed at Branford parks and outdoor recreation areas.
The parks and rec department and board has worked alongside key stakeholders, sports organizers and residents, Judy Barron and AJ Pace, in placing “lifesaving devices throughout town,” a news release reads.
Source: https://patch.com/connecticut/branford/heart-park-unveiling-aeds-branford-parks-valentines-day
Roanoke: City enhances public safety with five more Automated External Defibrillators at parks
Roanoke Parks will celebrate a ribbon cutting on Thursday, February 1, 2024, of the installation of five new Automated External Defibrillators (AED) throughout Roanoke’s outdoor public areas.
Roanoke’s outdoor defibrillator initiative represents a significant milestone in enhancing public safety and providing critical emergency support to community members and visitors during a cardiac emergency.
The new AEDs are strategically positioned in Wasena Park, Smith Park, Rivers Edge North (Maher Field), Elmwood Park and at the famous Mill Mountain Star. In conjunction with three previously installed units at Thrasher Park, Washington Park and Towers Shopping Center, the AEDS serve as a crucial resource for sudden cardiac arrest.
JEMS Podcast: CPR Scene Time and Its Impact on Survival
Jacob Hutton, a paramedic researcher from Canada, is interviewed about his research article in Resuscitation about how the length of on-scene time affects survival outcomes when EMS get ROSC after CPR. This 2023 article is titled “The association of the post-resuscitation on-scene interval and patient outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.”
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA7YlmSX7A0
Forgotten history in the development of defibrillators
Every time he sees an AED, Marvin A. Wayne, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FAHA, is reminded of its history. That’s because he was part of its history.
“Think of the thousands of people who have been saved by the AED worldwide,” says Wayne, medical program director for Washington’s Whatcom County EMS and assistant clinical professor at the University of Washington. “You can get some discussion of who invented the defibrillator, who developed penicillin, and so many other medical discoveries and developments. But nobody knows who invented and developed the AED.“
Wayne’s part in the story started in Oregon in the early 1970s, when physicians Arch Diack, MD, and W. Stanley Welborn, MD, joined forces with engineer Robert Rullman to brainstorm ways to bring defibrillation to patients in the field.
At that point out-of-hospital defibrillation was in its infancy. Few EMS systems had the capability, and defibrillators weren’t designed for mobile use. Public access defibrillation didn’t exist yet.
“In the early 1970s a very select number of prehospital units were carrying defibrillators,“ says Wayne. “They were big and clunky, but they worked. There was nothing for the public and nothing readily available to grab off the shelf or wall.“
Read on: https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/emsworld/forgotten-history-heart-aid
Did you catch something in the news related to resuscitation recently that you would like to see in this digest? Want to spotlight an event or activity aimed at improving cardiac arrest outcomes?
Feel free to email david@code1web.com