Posted by Wayne Roberts on 11/17/2010
to AED News
 News has broken on the FDA's plan to use
the City and County of Denver as a pilot for their new AED initiative
announced just yesterday. The University of Colorado School of Medicine
plans to work with the FDA to develop a pilot registry in Denver that
will enable dispatchers to quickly identify the location of AEDs within
the Denver community. The dispatchers will be able to provide callers
with vital information pertaining to AED location via access to the
registry and the caller's location.
"When a cardiac arrest or a heart event happens, minutes count at that point," said Dr. Chris Colwell, Director of Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center. "What the database allows us to do is take the 911 call and connect the caller with the closest AED."
Local Denver AED advocate Cheryl Badger knows how important and crucial this registry can be in saving lives. In 2006, her three-and-a-half year old daughter Brianna lost her life as a result of sudden cardiac arrest.
"If an automated external defibrillator had been in place at that school and someone had known where it was, that it was registered to the City of Denver, we would have saved her life," Badger said.
We're eager to see what the new registry and database will entail for the City of Denver and what effect it might have in improving response times and survival rates. Our gut tells us that a first-rate registry system and improved AED access spread throughout the City and County of Denver will have a dramatic effect on the number of lives saved.
Also, for those in the Denver and Colorado area, the Badger family will be hosting a fundraising event in February to help in the purchasing of AEDs for schools in Colorado. The "Save a Heart at the Sweet Hearts Ball" will be held February 12th. All proceeds will be used to purchase AEDs in Colorado schools. For information and/or to support the cause, please visit www.safety-store.org.
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