By Sarah Bruyn Jones
The Roanoke Times
SALEM, Va. — Ken McCauley knows he is lucky to be alive. And his doctors agree.
On Dec. 3, McCauley, 53, was at a spin cycling class at the Salem YMCA. “I was feeling pretty good,” he said.
It was the 5:30 a.m. class that McCauley had been attending every Wednesday and Friday since the beginning of the year. An avid runner, McCauley began taking the class after his knees started bothering him. He still ran four days a week, and completed a half marathon in November.
The class, which had about 10 participants, was on its third push as cyclists peddled up an imaginary hill with the tension high on their stationary bikes. That’s when McCauley blacked out, falling off his bike and hitting the back of his head.
Laura Hart, a physician’s assistant who happened to be riding on the bike next to McCauley’s, checked for a pulse. She didn’t detect one.
The instructor ran for the facility’s Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Then Hart and another class participant, Dr. Nat Stephens, followed the instructions for using the defibrillator.
“We cleared him and administered the shock and he immediately came to,” Stephens said. “He came off of the floor a little bit and said, ‘What?’ — that was it. We got a pulse immediately from him.”
McCauley strongly believes that without the AED he would have died. Evidence supports that theory. While people who go into cardiac arrest do survive with basic CPR chest compressions, research has shown that the survival rate doubles if an AED is used properly, said Dr. David Sane, chief of cardiology at Carilion Clinic.
In McCauley’s case, the AED “most likely saved his life,” said Dr. Richard Konstance, who treated McCauley.
There are other AED success stories as well. In May, Norma Anderson was driving through Franklin County when she had a heart attack. A motorist stopped and began CPR. Then a sheriff’s deputy arrived with an AED, which he used until Franklin County EMS arrived. Anderson lived.
But there are also times when the device doesn’t save a life. The only other time the Salem YMCA’s AED was used, the person didn’t survive, said wellness director Tricia Reynolds.
Still, with about 295,000 Americans dying from sudden cardiac arrest each year, advocates of AEDs say, broad deployment of these devices throughout communities could save thousands of lives. The American Heart Association estimates that at least 20,000 lives could be saved annually by prompt use of AEDs.
While the price has come down on the machines, which once sold from $3,000 and are now around $1,000, there is still debate on how many should be placed throughout a community.
Sane cautioned that buying an AED isn’t enough.
“It is not adequate to simply place it and forget about it,” he said. “It has to be maintained. The battery can lose power. The chest pads have to be replaced. Maintenance and supervision are required.”
And Konstance questioned whether saturating a community with AEDs would really prevent more deaths.
State legislators around the nation have been active during the past six years in establishing laws that encourage broader availability to AEDs.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, by 2006 more than half of the states, including Virginia, had changed or expanded their AED laws. Several have enacted laws to protect rescuers and businesses that use and have AEDs.
McCauley said he hopes that by sharing his story, he will bring awareness to the benefit of AEDs and recognition to those who acted to save his life.
“I know how fortunate I was to be where I was and the fact that the Y has that equipment in place,” McCauley said. “I could have easily been out for a run on the street. That’s where I am a lot of mornings.”
He also thinks AEDs should be in more places.
McCauley was hospitalized for six days. He had a pacemaker and defibrillator installed to protect his heart from future malfunctions. And he is already back at the Salem YMCA, although he isn’t exercising at the same threshold. On Christmas Eve he stopped by the Friday morning spin class with candy canes. He received hugs and well wishes in return.
“We felt like it was our Christmas miracle to see Ken gone and come back; it was a real blessing,” Stephens said.
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