Here's a crazy story you may have
missed:
On February 19, a company in Hedron,
Ohio installed an AED in their office. They would later say that it
was something they did as a “just in case” measure, just sticking
with the “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not
have it” mentality.
Turns out, they needed it pretty badly.
Later that SAME DAY, Jackie Bartley,
41, was in a meeting with some of his co-workers when he realized
that something was wrong.
The next thing he knew, he woke up on
the floor.
Bartley had suffered
a heart attack, and had it not been for the AED that was
installed just hours before, there's a good chance that he wouldn't
have survived it.
But it wasn't just the AED. Let's not forget Bartley's
coworkers. They had the presence of mind to begin CPR and use the new
AED, which may not sound too incredible until you realize that they
hadn't even been trained on it yet.
That's right. The AED training was
scheduled for the following week. Unfortunately, cardiac arrest isn't
polite enough to wait around.
Not only did they react correctly, they
reacted quickly. They managed to restart Bartley's heart before
paramedics arrived.
So what's the lesson here?
Simple. You never know when an AED will
save someone's life.
Sudden cardiac arrest doesn't give any
sort of advance notice as to when it's going to hit. There's not a “heart
attack season” or any kind of “safe period.” Sudden cardiac
arrest is just that: sudden.
Having an AED on scene is just the
right thing to do, plain and simple. You never know exactly when you
might need it. You may need it today, you may need it tomorrow, or
you may need it a year from now.
Or, who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky
and you'll never need it.
But are you really willing to bet
someone's life on it?
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