By Richard Weizel
The Connecticut Post Online
STRATFORD, Conn. — Donna Best, the town’s emergency medical services chief, jarred open the glass-enclosed defibrillator case just outside Town Council chambers Tuesday morning, triggering a piercing siren that signaled a person might be in the throes of sudden cardiac arrest.
With no time to lose, she pulled from the case one of Town Hall’s two recently installed automated external defibrillators and followed the voice instructions, attaching two pads to the chest of a mannequin as she demonstrated the electronic shock that regulates the heart of a person in cardiac arrest.
With the help of Doug Comstock, whose company, Cardiac Science, makes the devices, Best pressed her hands against the dummy’s chest, pumping over and over until a voice recording told her to stop. In an ideal scenario, paramedics and emergency medical technicians would have already arrived to take over and continue the life-saving procedure before transporting the patient to the closest hospital.
“This procedure, with minimal training, can be done by anyone,” Best said.
As town and state officials gathered for the unveiling of the devices, Mayor James R. Miron hailed the demonstration as a “major step” in his new ordinance requiring that automated external defibrillators be placed at certain types of establishments by July 1. Town employees will also be required to take a four-hour cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AED training session recommended for those who use the device.
The mayor’s ordinance, the first of its kind in Connecticut and one of only a handful in the nation, was approved by the Town Council last October. It requires AEDs to be placed in all town buildings and schools, health clubs, retail stores with more than 50 employees or an occupancy of greater than 250, as well as hotels and other buildings. The town’s largest employer, Sikorsky Aircraft Co., has already voluntarily installed the devices at the company’s Main Street plant.
“The ordinance provides a cardiac safety net for our residents and visitors,” Miron said. “The sooner the defibrillator can be administered, the better the person’s chances for survival.”
Sudden cardiac arrest claims the lives of 365,000 people each year in North America, but with proper treatment, including CPR and early defibrillation, 40,000 lives could be saved, according to the American Heart Association.
“As the mayor has pointed out, tens of thousands of people die of sudden cardiac arrest every year,” said Leonard H. Guercia Jr., a branch chief for the state Department of Public Health. “These devices, which are accessible to the public, can greatly reduce those numbers.”
Becky Simon, 12, a seventh-grader at Wooster Middle School who has raised $1,000 for the AEDs by creating and selling “Becky’s Bookmarks,” cut the ribbon during Tuesday’s ceremony to mark the installation of the devices.
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