You certainly didn't expect to need heart attack first aid in a public place while waiting for your plane, even though you've just carried your luggage almost three blocks from one airport terminal to another. All of a sudden, you feel like a plane is sitting on your chest. You're dealing with a huge weight on your chest, pressure, and pain running down your arm. You cannot breath and you suspect that you're having a heart attack.
Someone who is also waiting for their plane in the seat next to you notices as you begin to sweat, flounder and have difficulty breathing.
They ask you, "are you all right?" and you can barely shake your head No.
They alert the airline staff, and a loudspeaker is heard: "Code blue Terminal 5 gate 41."
Now it comes down to moments, to minutes, to seconds.
This type of heart attack is not about a matter of getting you into an ambulance. You are having a fatal heart attack. and you need heart attack first aid right now. Immediate decisive action needs to be taken before the ambulance arrives. CPR is not going to help you with your heart attack. Not with this kind of heart attack. Your heart needs to be electrically shocked.
Looking down the terminal, there is a symbol. It has sort of a lightening bolt. Behind the glass there is no fire extinguisher. Instead, there is a small medical device - an AED machine.
An AED machine is an Automated External Defibrillator. By placing just a couple of patches on your chest, the amazing AED medical device can check out your heart rhythm, and determine if your heart needs that electrical shock and if it does, the AED will give your heart that electrical shock.
The fellow waiting passenger looks at the AED medical device. She is an executive with a local bank. She has never tried to administer heart attack first aid before, but she sees that the AED machine actually has clear instructions, and that the instructions tell her what to do, step by step.
Although the Good Samaritan is scared, more scared than she can bear to think about, she really want to be the Good Samaritan that she tries to be, so she tries to remain calm while she follows the instructions. This is not a time to fail. The Good Samaritan secures the AED leads. She waits while the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) decides what to do.
The AED reads your heart rhythm and decides to administer the electrical shock. Your heart receives it. Your life is saved, before the paramedics are even in the airport terminal. Is this science fiction fantasy? No, this is here and now - if you are in Chicago International Airport or if only you were in a public place that had an available AED on the premises.
Because of the success of the AED heart attack life saving experiences at Chicago International Airport, there have been various legislative responses and proposals to make Automated External Defibrillators more widely available and accessible in public places to help prevent deadly heart attacks - in public places that many people frequent, like in airports, health clubs, schools and large businesses.
Also, some states like Oregon have passed an AED-related Good Samaritan law to give the person trying to help you some immunity from being sued because they were simply trying to be a Good Samaritan.
If people are afraid to get sued, then maybe Good Samaritans will not help you, so there is a two step focus to such AED-related Good Samaritan law:
The first part of the process is to require that the AED be available.
The second part is to give immunity to people who try to help you, and to those "do-gooders" who are called Good Samaritans.
More states should consider enacting such laws, like Oregon has, and those States which have in fact enacted these AED and AED-related Good Samaritan laws need to enforce them to save the lives, to prevent the deadly heart attacks about which the laws are intended.
Someone who is also waiting for their plane in the seat next to you notices as you begin to sweat, flounder and have difficulty breathing.
They ask you, "are you all right?" and you can barely shake your head No.
They alert the airline staff, and a loudspeaker is heard: "Code blue Terminal 5 gate 41."
Now it comes down to moments, to minutes, to seconds.
This type of heart attack is not about a matter of getting you into an ambulance. You are having a fatal heart attack. and you need heart attack first aid right now. Immediate decisive action needs to be taken before the ambulance arrives. CPR is not going to help you with your heart attack. Not with this kind of heart attack. Your heart needs to be electrically shocked.
Looking down the terminal, there is a symbol. It has sort of a lightening bolt. Behind the glass there is no fire extinguisher. Instead, there is a small medical device - an AED machine.
An AED machine is an Automated External Defibrillator. By placing just a couple of patches on your chest, the amazing AED medical device can check out your heart rhythm, and determine if your heart needs that electrical shock and if it does, the AED will give your heart that electrical shock.
The fellow waiting passenger looks at the AED medical device. She is an executive with a local bank. She has never tried to administer heart attack first aid before, but she sees that the AED machine actually has clear instructions, and that the instructions tell her what to do, step by step.
Although the Good Samaritan is scared, more scared than she can bear to think about, she really want to be the Good Samaritan that she tries to be, so she tries to remain calm while she follows the instructions. This is not a time to fail. The Good Samaritan secures the AED leads. She waits while the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) decides what to do.
The AED reads your heart rhythm and decides to administer the electrical shock. Your heart receives it. Your life is saved, before the paramedics are even in the airport terminal. Is this science fiction fantasy? No, this is here and now - if you are in Chicago International Airport or if only you were in a public place that had an available AED on the premises.
Because of the success of the AED heart attack life saving experiences at Chicago International Airport, there have been various legislative responses and proposals to make Automated External Defibrillators more widely available and accessible in public places to help prevent deadly heart attacks - in public places that many people frequent, like in airports, health clubs, schools and large businesses.
Also, some states like Oregon have passed an AED-related Good Samaritan law to give the person trying to help you some immunity from being sued because they were simply trying to be a Good Samaritan.
If people are afraid to get sued, then maybe Good Samaritans will not help you, so there is a two step focus to such AED-related Good Samaritan law:
The first part of the process is to require that the AED be available.
The second part is to give immunity to people who try to help you, and to those "do-gooders" who are called Good Samaritans.
More states should consider enacting such laws, like Oregon has, and those States which have in fact enacted these AED and AED-related Good Samaritan laws need to enforce them to save the lives, to prevent the deadly heart attacks about which the laws are intended.
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