Local Woman Pays It Forward With Mobile CPR Bus

http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/11/27/local-company-donates-lifesaving-device-to-sun

Local company donates lifesaving device to Sun

Stephen Dinelle misses his daily dose of Earl McRae.

The award-winning Sun columnist died of a heart attack in the newsroom Oct. 15 as he worked away on deadline writing the lead story of the day.

Not a writer himself, Dinelle figured out the perfect way to pay tribute to McRae — something practical, something thoughtful and generous.

A former paramedic, Dinelle is now a salesman and educator with AED Authority — an Ottawa-based supplier of automatic external defibrillators, similar to the more than 700 public access ones supplied by the Ottawa Paramedic Service.

He’s decided to donate one to the Sun in memory of Earl — someone who was a part of his morning routine for as long as he can remember.

“One of those things where I sit down in the morning before going into work and having my cup of coffee, starting off my day with a real good chuckle,” he said. “Earl was notorious for bring us all back to where we needed to be. He had that ability to kind of centre me for the day.”

Together with his partner, Dinelle decided the donation was fitting not only due to Earl’s influence in the community, but also because of how he died.

“I think this community needs to reach out to the Sun and say — you know what — you guys lost one. We need to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Dinelle said.

The $1,700 defibrillator will arrive sometime in the next few weeks. The company has agreed to train staff on how to use it and help choose the best location to keep it.

Twitter: @DougHempstead

Some facts about automatic external defibrillators:

• Automatic external defibrillators helped bystanders save four lives in the past week
• The cost of the units has dropped dramatically in the past few years. A unit for the home runs around $1,100 and one for an office or public facility is around $1,700.
• There are more than 700 public-access AEDs in the city monitored by the Ottawa Paramedic Service — about 100 more in private buildings.
• Sudden cardiac arrest is more common than car crashes, breast cancer, prostate cancer and house fires
• The survival rate of SCA if treated with immediate medical attention including defibrillation is upwards of 90%. That rate decreases by about 10% each minute.
• An estimated 95% of SCA victims die before reaching hospital.
• Survival rate of an SCA victim without medical intervention is only 5%
• Ottawa paramedics train about 12,000 people each year in how to use AEDs and how to do CPR
• Since they opened for business in March, AED Authority has sold 60 units in Ottawa
• The key elements in the chain of survival are calling 911 followed by good, early CPR and AED. CPR gets blood flowing to the brain while an AED re-established the heart rhythm.

— Doug Hempstead

Over 13,000 active residents enjoy many of the amenities at Sun City Hilton Head (SCHH) and have the peace of mind that emergency procedures and equipment are all around them. At least ten lives have been saved at SCHH in the last nine years specifically because a well managed and executed Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Program is in place.

An AED is a small, portable device that analyzes the heart’s rhythm for someone in cardiac arrest and delivers a defibrillation shock if it determines one is needed. SCHH has an AED Program with AED Authority® and they have partnered for several years to maintain the preparation, training requirements and administration of all the AEDs throughout SCHH’s facilities. Cherie Bronsky, Director of Fitness at SCHH, believes “People feel more secure and safe when they invest in a retirement community that takes lifesaving procedures seriously in their organization.”

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(Ft. Collins, CO, – February 8th, 2011) – In a Ft. Collins Recreation Center, Katie Stieber’s CPR/AED training kicked into action. “I’ve taken the CPR/AED training four or five times and the refresher courses” Stieber said, “all I can say, I will never complain again about taking the class.”

On a Monday morning Katie heard a cry for help in the exercise area at one of the Ft. Collins Recreation Facilities. She and other Recreation Department Staff ran to find an unresponsive man slumped over a stationary bicycle. After assessing him, one of the staff called 911, another ran to get an AED, while Katie started chest compressions.

They applied the AED to the victim, it said a shock was advised and to continue with CPR. An Automated External Defibrillator, or AED, is a small, portable device that analyzes the heart’s rhythm for someone in cardiac arrest and delivers a defibrillation shock if it determines one is needed. Katie said “it was extremely logical to use the AED”, especially after all the training she’d had, but couldn’t help thinking “this is real”.

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