Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) for Public Parks, Recreation Facilities & Outdoor Stadiums
The goal of Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) programs is having an AED defibrillator in locations of highly concentrated populations of people such as sport stadiums, public parks and recreation facilities can increase the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest. Public access defibrillation (PAD) programs were approved by the American Heart Association in 1995. The goal of Public Access Defibrillation programs is to have an AED available to the public for use on a victim suffering sudden cardiac arrest to greatly increase the victim’s chances of survival. A non-medically trained person can effectively use an AED defibrillator to help save a life before the arrival of a Firefighter, police officer, Paramedic or an EMT professional.
In an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004, Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) studies showed that the use of an AED greatly improved the survival of victims of sudden cardiac arrest. The results were based on a two year study of the outcome of victims of SCD who were given CPR alone verses victims that were treated with an AED.
It is a proven fact that a sudden cardiac arrest event will eventually happen in an area where there is a large number of people that congregate regularly, but the victims’ survival is almost solely dependent on whether or not the facility has taken advantage of placing an AED within reasonable distance of the victim. Without an AED, the victim has a less than 5% chance of surviving, and that is only if a rescuer provides good effective CPR quickly. It is recommended by the American heart Association that an AED is available to the patient in a time frame of 3 to 5 minutes to give them the optimal chance of survival.