AED Defibrillators Save Lives in Nursing Homes
A nursing home resident is making her way down a hall using a walker. In an instant, she collapses to the floor, a victim of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). SCA is often associated with ventricular fibrillation, an abnormal quivering rhythm that makes the heart unable to pump blood properly. The traditional emergency response would be to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in hope of keeping the resident alive until she could be taken to a hospital. Today, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) offer an additional emergency treatment.
AEDs are FDA-approved portable devices that can shock an unsteady heart back into beating normally. Used in combination with CPR, AED Defibrillators can greatly increase survival rates when they are readily available in places where SCA tends to occur. The American Heart Association recommends that an AED be placed within three to five minutes of reaching any patient. Surviving a Sudden Cardiac Arrest can increase as high as 74 percent with an AED device with a 3-5 minute response time. The American Heart Association estimates that 40,000 more lives could be saved annually in the U.S. alone if AEDs were more widely available and could reach victims more quickly.
Some states have already passed legislation requiring nursing homes and assisted living facilities such as Texas in September 2010, and many more states such as Florida and New York have new pending AED that would require nursing homes and assisted living facilities to have an automated external defibrillator.
Instead of having to purchase a fully functional crash cart defibrillator listed below are affordable and easy to use Automated External Defibrillators and some portable devices with ECG and 3 lead capabilities.