Wednesday, February 14, 2001
|
Wednesday, February 14, 2001 |
|
Heart help goes public Fayette, PTC hope to make cardiac defibrillators more accessible By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
If you've got to go into cardiac arrest in a public place, Fayette County may be one of the better places in the country to do it. According to Peachtree City firefighter/Paramedic Chris Campbell, the ready accessibility of automatic external defibrillators can make the difference between life and death. And Fayette is taking the lead on the East Coast in expanding this technology the way it has been done in Seattle, where an estimated one out of two adults has learned CPR, and where AEDs are everywhere available. Campbell is the point man for the local AED program, a campaign sponsored by the American Heart Association. "It's the goal of the AHA to make AEDs as readily accessible as fire extinguishers," Campbell says. "Right now, in Fayette County, the sheriff's cars and every police car in Peachtree City carry an AED. They sometimes beat us there by a few minutes, and have used them several times," he says. The AHA campaign is to locate AEDs wherever large groups of people gather. Eventually the organization hopes to have grant money available to assist in the purchase of the machines which have come down in price to about $3,000 but that may still be a decade away. The city of Peachtree City responded positively to Campbell's approach, he said. "They took that first step" and funded one for City Hall, one for the senior center The Gathering Place, and one for Kedron Field House, with the aim to place one in each recreation center in town. The first Fayette industry to buy an AED was NCR in Peachtree City, and both Panasonic and Lawson Mardon Atlanta, also in Peachtree City, have expressed interest. Campbell said he also wrote to all the churches in town. Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church is the first to order an AED, but, "I know others will catch on as word gets around." The Fire Department is trying to spread that word, and is offering the brief training course needed to operate the virtually foolproof equipment. The device is simple to use, literally talking the operator through the required steps, but Campbell does recommend the class, backed up with a CPR course, provided by the Fire Department at minimal cost. The placement of AEDs in airliners has received a lot of press, Campbell noted, and the campaign has succeeded in reaching several large hotel chains. The city of Riverdale is also placing AEDs in patrol cars, but Campbell said that to his knowledge, no other metro Atlanta community has as comprehensive an AED and CPR campaign as the one he is developing here.
|
||