Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Popularity of AEDs prompts emergency training
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
VICTOR — Residents of Victor learned life-saving basics during a presentation by Emergency Medical Technician Jason Schott at Victor Public Library Feb. 3.
The program was hosted by the Victor Lions Club after it received a request for training on the use of the automated external defibrillators that cities, counties, schools and churches are installing, a member said.
Schott, a paramedic with Iowa County Ambulance, often teaches CPR and other emergency procedures to laypeople, but he also teaches detailed programs for medical and emergency workers, he said.
Schott grew up in northwest Iowa and moved to east-central Iowa in 1998, beginning a career in emergency medicine in 1999.
When Schott began his career, one of the most pressing issues someone faced when having a heart attack was finding a phone, he told his Victor audience. Calling for an ambulance depended on being near a phone.
“Now we pretty much all have a phone, he said. And the first thing a person in an emergency situation should do is call 911.
That creates another problem, said Schott. When phones were tied to buildings, emergency workers knew where a person was calling from. Now that phones are carried with people, dispatchers have to ask for a location.
A cell phone signal may not ping off the nearest tower, said Schott. If that tower is busy, a signal can ping off a different tower, and it may be in another county.
The dispatcher will have to reroute the call to the correct emergency agency.
About 78% of people who suffer cardiac arrest are at home, said Schott. About 18% have heart attacks in public.
While emergency workers want people to know CPR and understand how to use automated external defibrillators, Schott wants people to understand that most victims die. No one should feel guilty for losing someone.
Only 10% of people who have natural cardiac arrest live through it, Schott said. CPR performed by a bystander can increase the rate of survival to 15%, and when medical professionals are on hand, that rate goes up to 18%.
Most laypeople who perform CPR are working on someone they know, said Schott. “There is a natural grieving process you’re going to go through,” he said. “If you try to do CPR and they still die … that’s going to hit you pretty hard.”
In spite of the low survival rate, performing CPR is a good idea, said Schott. “We don’t know what’s going to work and what’s not, he said.
CPR has changed in the last 30 years, said Schott. People used to be told to find the lower end of the sternum (breastbone) and move down two fingers width. That seemed too technical.
Now people are told to place their hands on the nipple line, but that’s not necessarily better. Schott said that teenage boys giggle when he uses the phrase, and an older women told him that her nipples were lower than where Schott expected them to be.
That’s another problem doing CPR or using an AED, Schott said. People are used to seeing men without their shirts, but exposing a woman’s chest makes people uncomfortable.
Men usually want to know what do about a bra, said Schott. The garment doesn’t have to be removed if it’s not in the way, said Schott, but a woman’s breasts are often in the way unless the bra is removed.
Once the hands are properly placed on the victim, chest compressions can begin, about 120 per minute.
CPR should be done on the floor, said Schott, but if the heart attack happens in bed, a spouse or neighbor may be unable to move the patient to the floor. Doing CPR on a bed is better than not doing it at all, Schott said.
One mistake a person can make is to assume that the victim is breathing when he’s actually having agonal respirations. These are full body breaths, like a fish out of water, said Schott. They are infrequent and are not normal breathing.
If that’s the only breathing people see in the patient, they should begin CPR.
People don’t like to do “mouth-to-mouth,” said Schott, and it’s no longer taught as part of CPR. It takes time away from chest compressions and does little to help the patient.
If two people are at the scene, one can administer CPR while the other provides breaths.
“That is beneficial early on in cardiac arrest,” said Schott, but after about 10 minutes, it’s not as helpful
Defibrillators
Many public places have installed AEDs, and they are easy to use, said Schott. The kit has photos on the pads to show where they should be placed on the torso — always on bare skin.
The device talks, telling the bystander to place the pads and to keep away from the body afterward — to prevent moving it as the machine evaluates the heart rhythm — and when to shock the body with the press of a button.
The device looks for specific rhythms from the heart, said Schott. It won’t shock a person who has a flat line.
The initial shock will tell the machine what body mass the victim has and how to adjust the charge, said Schott.
AEDs have a very good success rate in stopping the rhythm of the heart and giving it a chance to restart, Schott said.
To keep up on where AEDs are located, download the PulsePoint phone app. Call 911 to receive the code to open the box.
