Quick thinking and the ready accessibility of an AED saved the life of a 70-year-old Germantown, Tennessee man. The man collapsed while sitting at a table at the Germantown Athletic Club. Club employee Teresa Martin quickly addressed the scene, telling her staff to call 911 while she ran to retrieve the Club's AED.
Club members administered CPR until the AED was prepped for use. The man was completely unresponsive and did not have a pulse, but after one quick shock from the AED, the man's heart revived itself.
Germantown paramedics arrived on the scene in less than four minutes of receiving the call. They transported the man to a nearby hospital and while en route the man received additional shocks.
He is expected to fully recover.
This incident brings up an important and crucial point – is your athletic facility, whether it be indoors or out, properly equipped with AEDs? Not only this, but are the AEDs properly maintained by the facility? As we've seen too often, the percentage is unacceptably high for facilities that either simply do not have AEDs or are poorly equipped with AEDs that receive little or no maintenance. Not only is this a liability, it is also a disservice to the members of the facility and its created community.
Next time you're at your gym, pool, or preferred recreational facility, look around you and see if an AED is present. If it isn't, ask the staff why these lifesaving devices are not present and see if they know your local statutes. If every recreational facility was as progressive and caring of its customers as Germantown Athletic Club, thousands of additional lives - both young and old - would be saved every year.
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