Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDawgInLakeDenham
Thanks for posting this perspective on Facebook groups. I have wondered "who appointed them boss?"....obviously themselves. It's wonderful that people take initiative to do stuff, but your ideas are valid. I along with you am not chastising any group and I believe them to have good intentions.
That being said, the same thing is happening in Lake Denham and I believe my neighbors want AED's but the only thing I know is.....they're collecting money.
Why I don't know more is purely my fault because:
1. I don't use Facebook
2. I'm a Snow Flake and I'm rarely at my TV home at this point,
but soon to be there full time
3. I haven't sought out the person spearheading the initiative
4. I can't commit to do anything at this time
Here are my thoughts on an AED program:
1. The best why to give an unresponsive person with no pulse is
IMMEDIATE INITIATION OF CPR...so teach everyone CPR
2. There is a good chance that the pulseless victim is in an
UNSHOCKABLE RYHTHM AND THE AED DOESN'T HELP SO
TEACH EVERYONE CPR
3. AED's do not provide CPR
4. AED's run on batteries and in some cases are $2,000
disposable equipment. Are you purchasing replacement
batteries and who is funding that over the years? Who is
routinely checking for proper functionality? A dead AED is
worthless
I would think that someone wanting AED's would first talk to the entire neighborhood and rally the troops. Find out who knows ACLS and CPR. Who has done CPR. Who has used defibrillators to shock people into a survivable rhythm. Get a team of folks that are in the know and not afraid to help in an emergency. Have a phone list of folks that can and will help. An AED looking nice in a weatherproof box may give you warm and fuzziness but is worthless until properly utilized.
Again I'm not being mean.....I'm being realistic
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Just to address some of your concerns. And I can only tell you how our village did/does things.
We had a retired nurse spearhead our effort. She asked for volunteers and established an AED Committee. We printed and distributed flyers with information about the program, so if someone wasn’t on facebook they were still initially informed. Since then our AED Committee has established a stand alone facebook group. If someone has questions and aren’t on facebook they can contact our coordinator directly.
We had tremendous support from the beginning. We have over 100 people trained in CPR and the use of the AED’s.
We also have a Maintenance Committee. We check our AED’s monthly, filling out a checklist and keeping it on file with the Maintenance Coordinator.
We’re in St. Catherine. That’s a six minute drive from Station 47. Add in dispatch time and the time it takes to roll, figure a minimum of eight minutes for first responders to arrive. And that’s if our closest resources are available.
We hold monthly communication tests and quarterly live dispatches. Our average time on scene is around two minutes with AED arrival around 2.5 minutes. As you might know every minute that the brain goes without oxygen reduces the chance of survival by about 10%. If we can get there in two minutes vs eight, it seems like a no brainer to have a local AED program.