Each year in the United States, there are approximately 225,000 sudden cardiac deaths.

Survival rates can range from 1 to 5 percent in most communities. However, as many as 30 to 50 percent more could survive if cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators were used within five minutes of a collapse, according to the new National Center For Early Defibrillation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Recently, the Kosciusko 21st Century Foundation awarded the American Red Cross $1,900 to purchase AED training equipment.

Becky Notestine, American Red Cross executive director, said an AED "(is) actually a small, rectangular box that houses electrodes and things that are capable of delivering a shock that will stimulate somebody's heart that is in defibrillation. In other words, it's just shaking like a bowl full of jelly. And that's because the heart runs on an electrical basis, we have an electrical system in our body.

"Every once in a while," Notestine said, "the system can get messed up to where it's not causing the muscles to fire in a rhythmic pattern that causes the heartbeat. And that causes a person sometimes to go into a cardiac arrest. And if you can defibrillate that and re-establish the rhythm, and that's done by an electrical shock, that person stands a very good chance of surviving with little or decreased damage than if you just let the heart continue to shake and it's not pumping blood."

The small box can deliver that shock. It has two electrodes that come off it and wires with pads on them, which are put on the chest. The operator just pushes a button and the machine detects if the person has a heartbeat or not.

"It's more dependable than us just using our fingers on the carotid artery on the neck to see if the pulse is there. The machine is actually measuring whether there's a shockable rhythm there and it tells you," said Notestine. "It's so foolproof."

She said ARC will add it to adult CPR classes where necessary, such as in businesses or industry. Their lifeguards also will be trained to use it.

"It'll be available. We won't teach it to everybody, but it will be available to people who want to learn it. We've had a lot of requests in our different industries in Kosciusko County to have the training available," she said.

The training has been available in other parts of the country for more than a year, she said, but locally, they didn't have access to buy a couple thousand dollars worth of equipment until the K21 Foundation helped them with the finances.

"It's training some firemen already have, some EMT/paramedics obviously have it, but now (lifeguards) will be able to have it, first responders will be able to have it, DePuy wants to have (people) trained," she said. Each organization, of course, will have to buy their own AEDs.

"What (we'll have here) are called trainers," she said. "They're not capable of delivering a shock. Obviously, the mannequins don't need a shock. But when they buy them for their companies, they'll be buying the equipment that can deliver the shock."

The importance of the devices and the training needed is recognized at the highest forms of government in the United States.

New legislation recently signed by President Bill Clinton encourages the placement of AEDs in all federal buildings because recent studies have shown that having AEDs in public places saves lives, according to the National Center for Early Defibrillation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Of course, AED does not replace CPR. "CPR training has to be with the AED," said Notestine. "Because a lot of times you are doing CPR until the AED is installed and if the shock doesn't work, you go right back into the CPR. The AED will not replace CPR training. They're paired, they have to work together."

The machines also were developed with safety in mind. She said, "They're designed not to deliver a shock unless there's a shockable rhythm if it's going to help there. If there isn't anything there that the shock is going to help, the machine tells you, 'Do not shock, continue with CPR.'"

Early in February, instructors will be retrained on using AEDs, and new lifeguard training material will be out, which includes information on using AEDs.

ARC has two people currently trained on using the AED. Notestine will soon retrain the CPR instructors who might want to teach AED. Once more than two people are trained on the AED, they will begin offering AED instruction to business and industries in the county.

"As soon as we can get our equipment in here and retrain more of our instructors, it's going to be available. ... I'm really targeting by mid-January to start retraining the instructors and by February, it should be available," she said.

For more information about ARC, call 267-5244. [[In-content Ad]]