By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
“We are very excited about this program and how much it can help people,” Jen Helt said of an Adams Health Network (AHN) program designed to provide life-saving devices that will counteract sudden cardiac arrest
Through a grant obtained by Helt, an AHN assistant chief nursing officer, AEDs are being provided to schools and other entities.
Automated External Defibrillator, or AEDs, are medical devices designed to analyze a heart’s rhythm and deliver an electric shock to a victim of ventricular fibrillation to restore the heart rhythm to normal.
Ventricular fibrillation is the uncoordinated heart rhythm most often responsible for sudden cardiac arrest.
Information from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says sudden cardiac arrest occurs when ventricular fibrillation takes place or when the heart stops beating altogether. Without medical attention, the victim collapses, loses consciousness, becomes unresponsive, and dies.
Many victims have no prior history of heart disease and are stricken without warning. Chances of survival from sudden cardiac death diminish by 7 – 10 % for each minute without immediate CPR or defibrillation. After 10 minutes, resuscitation rarely succeeds.
The AEDs, received through the grant, are being given out free of charge. Fifty have been obtained and Helt has written another grant seeking 75 more.
“We’ve started with the schools first as we know there have been instances of athletes collapsing; I think there was one in Fort Wayne not to long ago. So I wanted to get to the schools first.”
(In November, a Bishop Luers High School student collapsed during basketball practice and ended up being taken to Indianapolis for treatment. An athletic trainer began performing CPR immediately and used an AED while the athletic director called 911.)
Bellmont was the first, receiving seven AEDs. South Adams and Adams Central will be receiving theirs before the end of the month. Wyneken Memorial Lutheran School has also been given an AED.
Training on how to use the AEDs is provided.
Helt is hoping to work out something with the Amish population in Adams County..
“We are trying to get them (AEDs) to the Amish community since the AEDs are battery-operated,” she explained. “We’ve done some presentations in Amish schools – six, I believe – so we’re hoping to get them in their schools.
“Actually, a parent group reached out to us first.”
Although some businesses have inquired about AEDs, “We want to get them to the schools and Amish community first,” Helt said.
Some have been placed where young people and adults are involved, like Safety Park in Decatur, the Adams County Service Complex in Decatur, the 4-H Fair Board based in Monroe, and St. Paul Lutheran Church. The sheriff’s department has been another recipient.
Helt is seeking a second grant for another 75 AEDs. If she’s successful, that would mean a 125 devices worth a total of around $164,000.
Pads for the devices “are not cheap,” she noted, and are good for two to three years. A pack of 10 pads costs $487.
“Our Senior Leadership group at the hospital has decided they will replace them free if the pads are used – we hope not – or are past their time if they (the school or group with the pads) will reach out to us,” Helt said.