Amish in Pa. community learn to use defibrillators

DIANA MARTIN
The Associated Press

LANCASTER, Pa. – The simple, plodding horse and buggy clomping down your street might be concealing some surprisingly advanced technology.

Amish in Paradise Township, who generally shun technology, are learning how to save lives with automated external defibrillators, or AEDs.

More than 50 members of the rural community, about half of them Amish, recently participated in training to deliver a lifesaving shock in the case of sudden cardiac arrest.

Volunteers were outfitted with 20 AEDs , dispersed across schools, barns, churches and, yes, even buggies , to cut down response time on the nation’s leading cause of death.

“We took a group of people who are not exposed to computers, video games or automobiles, and within minutes they were able to follow the voice prompts of the AED,” said James Weber of the Manheim Township Ambulance Association, who leads the training.

“One of the biggest tenets of the Amish is community service,” he said. “They reject technology, but they recognize sudden cardiac arrest is such a public health crisis they are stepping forward to serve as first responders.”

First-responder training is particularly vital in rural Paradise, where the average emergency response time is 11 minutes, compared to a national average of nine, Weber said.

Plain sects account for nearly half of Paradise Township’s residents. Weber has been working on a plan to get them involved with emergency response for eight months.

“They finally got to the point where they understood the practical value and they’re now on board and responding to AED calls.”

At the most recent training session, held July 29, Amish children as young as 7 learned CPR and AED response. More than 30,000 Americans die each year from sudden cardiac arrest.
Information from: Intelligencer Journal, http://lancasteronline.com

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By Debra Dibartolo Jul 8th 2010 2:30PM
Three summers ago, I got a phone call from my mother one Wednesday evening, telling me to come straight to the hospital emergency department because, “Your brother’s heart stopped working.” My mother is usually not very excitable, so I was concerned but skeptical. My brother was an extremely healthy, 37-year-old father of two teenage boys. I knew my mother had to be making a mistake, because Brian was coaching football at the school that afternoon and therefore could not be in the hospital. I yelled upstairs to my husband to come with me to the emergency department; that my mother just called and is clearly very confused about something. “She thinks that Brian’s heart stopped,” I told him.

I understand that denial is very powerful. It’s a very strong psychologically-protective coping skill, but I truly was not in denial at that point. I really just thought my mother was confused.

Well, I was wrong. My 37-year-old brother — never sick a day in his life — suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on the high school football field while jogging with the members of his team.

Brian was one of the 600 people who die each day from sudden cardiac arrest. My family’s story is not a story of grief and loss, however. Our school has an automated external defibrillator, and all of the coaches and assistant coaches are educated on how to use it. Some of the teenage boys that he was jogging with ran to the school to get the AED, while another one of the coaches started cardiopulmonary resuscitation and called 911. Prior to the ambulance arriving, they “shocked” him twice and returned his heart to normal functioning.

Brian was hospitalized for five days while the nurses, doctors and technicians tried to figure out what happened and provide him with treatment, so it would not happen again. He was discharged and sent home with no injury to his heart, and a permanently implanted defibrillator in his chest for protection, should this ever happen again.

My brother’s story is not just an occurrence of “good luck.” It is a testament to organizations like the American Heart Association and their Public Access Defibrillation Program. As well as the skill, sound minds and quick responses of the young men on his football team, the other coaches, the volunteer emergency ambulance service in our community and the skill and training of the doctors, nurses and technicians who provided Brian’s care and treatment in the hospital.

Defibrillation is the only treatment for ventricular fibrillation, the condition that Brian suffered from that day. His heart, for reasons we still don’t know, began to beat chaotically and ceased pumping blood, which led to him collapsing and having no signs of life. Per the AHA, for every minute that passes, the chances that someone will survive ventricular fibrillation decreases 7 to 10 percent. So after as little as ten minutes, the chances of survival are very, very slim.

It was not a highly-trained emergency medicine doctor, cardiac nurse or paramedic with years of education and experience that saved Brian’s life that afternoon. The real hero of this story was a coach — one of his friends — who attended a one-day class given by the American Red Cross on how to administer CPR and use an AED.

Attending an AHA class is fun! Attending a class with your friends or family is even more fun. The instructors are not intimidating and they have programs that can be tailored to your specific needs and comfort level. Most of the classes don’t even have a test! What they do have is caring community members teaching other caring community members the skills they need to save a life.

SOURCE: AOL Health

A  Medic First Aid class will be held in Buellton , Ca.  The class covers Adult CPR/AED and Basic First Aid procedures.  At the end of the class, the students will recieve a 2 year completion class.  Call Safety 1st Seminars at (805) 928-7233 for price and registration

A  Medic First Aid class will be held in Pismo Beach, Ca.  The class covers Adult CPR/AED and Basic First Aid procedures.  At the end of the class, the students will recieve a 2 year completion class.  Call Safety 1st Seminars at (805) 928-7233 for price and registration

AED saves student’s life
Quick thinking and an external defibrillator helped save the life of a Gates-Chili student. A softball coach and an athletic trainer are recognized after they went into action to save the life of an eighth grader who collapsed at track practice.

People often talk about the quality of life – in this instance, quality of life is measured by something called an AED and people who knew how to use it.

Years of training paid off for Gates-Chili coach Michael Candileri and athletic trainer Julie Savage. The defibrillator couldn’t have been in a better location, just steps from where the stricken girl fell.

Candileri said, “You know, you’re just calming yourself and keeping yourself under control, making sure you’re doing everything correctly. The only thought in your mind is to save this girl.”

Savage used the defibrillator to give eighth grader Olivia Fish the initial shock. “The AED analyzed her again and said continue CPR — all good signs that she didn’t need to be shocked again.”

“You know, for a split second, you thought about what you were doing and then I stopped thinking and I said I just have to do and I can’t think,” Candileri said.

Paramedics took over when they arrived but the coach said, that’s when he thought about what ultimately could have happened because when the outcome was still uncertain when the girl was taken to the hospital.

But everything went right that day. Both were recognized at the school by the Red Cross. The shock Savage delivered and the CPR saved the girl’s life.

Both the coach and the athletic trainer have had a chance to see the girl and they said just seeing and talking with her — that’s been the most gratifying thing.

She is still in the hospital but is expected to go home soon. The school district said her family has expressed its gratitude for all that’s been done.

SOURCE: whec.com.

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