May you never have the need for CPR or an AED shock, VPL....I mean that sincerely.

Regarding

Quote:

"AEDs provide a false sense of security, in my opinion. You can't have AEDs with you wherever you go, whereas good health follows you everywhere."

VPL, following this line of opinion, Ambulances, Policemen and Firemen are a false sense of security, too. I mean, really. They can't be everywhere either.

Heck, a house instead of a tent as protection from a thunder, lightning, hail, or wind storm is a false sense of security, too. So should everybody live in a tent because that is "healthier" and closer to nature, too?

To my knowledge, no one lives forever - regardless if you are a vegetarian or not. We all have the "right" to make choices in life and along the way most of us have chosen poorly. Maybe its food choices, maybe exercising too much causing orthopedic problems or maybe its speeding in our cart.....whatever ! We have no one to answer to about how we have lived our lives except our maker. The one thing we all DO have in common is our humanity. If I am a first responder, it is NOT MY JOB to sort out that persons lifestyle. That is "above my pay scale". I will offer my assistance because we have a "connection".........we are human. If they survive or not is up to a higher power - let him sort it out.

anticoagulants, my diet was always good and my waist is 34, thank you.

PL: You try to get the world to eat right and we'll save lives with AEDs.

I was just trying to indicate the futility of trying to save people who are hell-bent on destroying themselves. I had a neighbor, before I moved to The Villages, who suffered a heart attack and was in intensive care for 10 days. During those ten days he obviously couldn't smoke and he told me he didn't mind not smoking - he didn't miss it. So, as I talked to him in the yard, I noticed that he lit up a cigarette and I asked him why he started smoking again if he didn't miss not smoking in the hospital. He replied that he just liked smoking, so I dropped the subject. At that moment I knew he was going to get another heart attack before long and next time he might not be so lucky to be saved. Well, a short time later, probobly several weeks, he had another heart attack and died.

The first time he was helping out as a salesman in his brother-in-law's furniture store and people there called an ambulance. That's how his life was saved. He lived in back of the store and the second heart attack happened while he was home alone. He was semi-retired and his wife worked full time, so she wasn't there to call 911. He wasn't very far from people who could have saved him if they had known. If they had had an AED device in the store it wouldn't have done him any good. These devices, and the people who operate them, can't follow people around everywhere they go.

Only a person's good health-habits will follow them wherever they go. And that gets to the root of the problem. That's what I would prefer to focus on, rather than something that would likely give a false sense of security.

Of course I would try my best to save anyone if I could, but I just don't like this AED program because I believe it lulls people into a false sense of securiity.

Food, schmood. If I'm around when ANY of you have a heart attack, I'll do my best to help you. A well-placed AED might help in that situation. Bravo to the supporters of this wonderful community effort.

:agree: It's wonderful how supporters have gotten on board with this community effort.

VPL, regarding this:

.........

We want and fund and train neighbors and pay for the contracted dispatching fees for our AED program because of pure and simple logic:

A. S____ happens.

B. The paramedics can easily be out on another call when a neighbor calls 911 for their help. It makes sense to
have a Plan B.

C. In a tragedy, people always look back and wish they could have done more to help/correct the problem. We whose neighborhoods organize, train and fund ourselves to work an AED program will be able to look back and say "we did all that we could" to avert a tragedy.

D. Even when one eats a "perfect", "healthy" diet....... S____ still happens.

Thanks for clarifying your position, it sounds like you have a healthy outlook. Unfortunately, I haven't known anyone who changed for good. Perhaps a couple of people on this website, but not anyone I've known in person, like neighbors or relatives. In fact, I have witnessed plenty of examples of the opposite.

For example, I had an overweight neighbor-friend who suffered a really bad stroke and had to live in a nursing home for several months. When he finally came home, I asked him if his doctor had recommended any special diet. He said, "yes" but quickly pointed out that he had no intention of following it. So it was only a few months before he suffered a second stroke and went back to the same nursing home. His wife said she doubted that he would ever be coming home again. He was only 50 years old and had two teenagers at home.

I have lots of these stories. There was even one person who made a good effort to eat healthy, got his arteries cleaned up, then got bored with eating healthy and went back to his old ways and had to get bypass surgery.

It's just another line of defense - don't believe it is lulling anyone into a false sense of security. People's sense of security is firmly in place before they move to The Villages and notice their neighborhood has an AED.

Thank you. I'm pretty certain that I won't need it. There's no history of heart disease in my large extended family, that includes grandparents, parents, siblings, Aunts, Uncles and cousins.

And whenever I go to my doctor for a check up, my blood pressure is usually 100 over 50, without medication. That's the number one indicator of heart health. If someone has coronary artery disease, their blood pressure, as a general rule, will go up as the disease progresses.

How about you? Hope you're doing well too.

I guess the difference is that Ambulances are needed for a wide variety of health related emergencies. So we can't seem to do without them and we don't have a choice. Perhaps some people do get a false sense of security knowing that an ambulance can get to them in a few minutes. Some people think the community health system will do it all with no healthy-lifestyle effort needed on their part. Policemen and firemen? You can be in the best of health and you still might need them.

LOL, the main problem here is that I wouldn't be able to fit all of my creature comforts into a tent, and I like comfort (not to be confused with comfort foods). Being closer to nature is not always healthier. I don't think my air conditioner will work very well in a tent. Also, I need my stove, refrigerator, kitchen cabnets, sink and counter tops to prepare healthy meals. Seriously, would I be able to perpare healthy meals in a tent?

I totally agree, I just won't be chipping in for an AED if it comes to my neighborhood.

Anticoagulants have possible side effects, whereas you could prevent blood-platelet clumping through dietary means. Interested?

This is one more reason, in my opinion, why AEDs are not needed except for incorrect lifestyle choices. Let's learn what foods are helpful and what foods are harmful. Certain foods will cause blood-platelets to clump together and there are other foods that will correct that.