The device that can save lives, the defibrillator
Jan. 10, 2012 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
Fast action and help is the key to survival when a person suffers sudden cardiac arrest
Emergency service professionals, physicians and experts say odds of survival are reduced by 10% for every minute a person is collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) without CPR or defibrillation.
The Medtronic Foundation’s HeartRescue Project has produced an interactive, online experience, the “Save-a-Life Simulator,” to promote proper and timely bystander response to sudden cardiac arrest.
Sudden cardiac arrest is a sudden, abrupt loss of heart function primarily caused by rapid and/or chaotic electrical activity. It occurs without warning and renders a person clinically dead within minutes unless treated with CPR and defibrillation. If a victim’s heart is not beating, any help they receive is beneficial.
SCA is a leading cause of death in America, which according to the American Heart Association strikes nearly 400,000 Americans each year. Research shows that communities with higher bystander CPR participation have higher SCA survival rates. Unfortunately, overall U.S. rates of SCA survival have not improved in more than 30 years, hovering around eight percent.
This first person point-of-view video puts the viewer in the shoes of an everyday mall-goer who witnesses a person experiencing SCA. The “choose-your-own-adventure” style of the interactive experience, allows you to decide the fate of the victim by making critical choices, starting with an initial decision to help the victim or ignore the situation. Through this public service announcement and online experience, the HeartRescue Project is trying to instill a basic response mindset: call 911, start chest compressions immediately and use an AED, if available.
A corresponding television public service announcement, titled “All Alone,” has been distributed nationwide, driving viewers to HeartRescueNow.com to access the online learning tool.
(Editor’s note:
Medtronic is a medical manufacturing company founded by medical pioneer Earl E. Bakken and his brother in law in Minnesota in 1949. Bakken developed the fist external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957. Medtronic has grown to become the world’s largest independent medical technology company).
