Perspectives from Pinnacle: Dying Despite Defibrillators

TV newsman Tim Russert died of cardiac arrest in 2008 in a studio that had an AED on site. According to Russert’s doctor, coworkers were preparing to use it as EMS arrived—almost 15 minutes after Russert collapsed. The doc described the interval to first shock as “significant—more than you would want.”¹

Russert isn’t the only person to die in a building with an AED. Others have, like Russert, simply because bystanders didn’t know there was one nearby.

“You can’t get an AED if you don’t know where one is,” says Elliot Fisch, president and CEO of Florida-based Atrus, Inc., which maintains a national registry of AEDs for use in emergencies. “If survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest starts with calling 9-1-1, then 9-1-1 needs to know where those AEDs are.”

Atrus’ effort to solve that problem is AED Link, which displays the locations of devices listed in its National AED Registry to 9-1-1 personnel receiving cardiac arrest calls. Having such information quickly on hand can facilitate AEDs’ retrieval and use and improve victims’ chances of survival.

Per the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), AEDs are used in less than 5% of resuscitation attempts. A white paper from Atrus cites numerous tragic cases where they could have been, had someone known they were around when a victim collapsed.

“Right at that moment,” says Fisch, “we believe 9-1-1 should be able to say, ‘I see there’s a defibrillator at this location. Is there somebody with you who can go retrieve it?’”

The registry maintains an owner’s name for each device, and AED Link pages them as part of any response. It also tracks availability: If a device is only accessible during 9-5 business hours, for example, it won’t show as available outside those hours. And AED Link provides automatic maintenance reminders for AED owners for things like pads and batteries. It operates independently of CAD type and doesn’t require a custom interface.

The National AED Registry is a Web-based cloud service, with AED owners responsible for maintaining the quality of their data. It also informs the unrelated but complementary Pulse Point app, which provides registered AED locations as part of its crowd-sourced approach to CPR.

The ongoing challenge, of course, is getting all those defibrillators and their locations identified and listed in the database.

“That challenge is a constant,” says Fisch. “We know we’ll never capture everything. But we can start with what we know. And we know there are AEDs in city, county and government buildings. We know they’re in schools and parks and recreation centers and golf courses. So there are a certain number of AEDs we know are public access. We start with those, then provide a public information program with guidance for going out into communities and registering devices.”

For more: www.atrusinc.com, www.aedlink.com, www.nationalaedregistry.com.

Reference

1. Parker-Pope T. Could a Defibrillator Have Saved Tim Russert? New York Times, 2008 Jun 19.

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