AEDs to the Rescue

In the workplace, around 10,000 sudden cardiac arrest events occur each year, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Furthermore, sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the workplace per an article by the Society for Human Resource Management. The key message here is that cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere.

So, what can be done to help improve the chances of survival for cardiac arrest victims?

The good news is, sudden cardiac arrest can have a greater than 50% survival rate if a victim is provided care quickly — optimally within the first three to five minutes from collapse. Cardiac arrest victims need two things to give them the best possible chance of survival, a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) and high-quality cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) – both of which need to be delivered as quickly as possible.

Cardiac arrest is a failure of the heart’s electrical system to work properly. During cardiac arrest, erratic electrical activity in the heart causes it to “fibrillate” or flutter and it can no longer pump blood. The shock delivered by the AED terminates this erratic electrical activity in the heart allowing it to effectively “reset” itself so that it can establish a normal sinus rhythm and pump blood once again. A struggling heart also needs CPR to help maintain blood flow to the heart and other vital organs and help evacuate blood from an engorged heart so that it is more receptive to a shock.

Unfortunately, many victims are not provided treatment quickly enough because AEDs are not always available. When cardiac arrest occurs outside of the hospital, AEDs are generally only available about 2% of the time. In fact, The Society for Human Resource Management states only 4% of the 7 million U.S. businesses have an onsite AED. Even the best emergency services organizations can rarely respond in faster than seven to twelve minutes and a victim’s chances of survival diminish by approximately 10% for each minute that passes when no treatment is provided. As a result, the average survival rate for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victim is only about 5%. However, if an AED is present, those chances increase to around 24%. Furthermore, if the AED used provides real-time CPR feedback to help support the delivery of high-quality CPR to a victim, survival rates have been shown to improve up to 56%.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a serious health issue that can strike anyone, anywhere. In addition to creating a workplace emergency response system/training that includes 911 and CPR, it’s also important to increase awareness that if more AEDs are made available, along with proper instruction and maintenance of equipment, victims can be treated quickly and the outcome can be drastically improved.