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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2000)
O ctober 18, 2000 Page A3 ¿The Jlortlanò (ßbßeruer ~ ■Health/Education Heart Devices Becoming Common in Everyday Life fo tIMPSEY TAMER AP M edical W riter CH ICA G O (AP) — Picture tossing a bottle o f aspirin into your shopping cart w hile cruising dow n the drug store aisle, along with boxes o f tissue, some toothpaste — and a por table heart defibrillator, too. Dr. M ickey S. Eisenberg wants that scenario to becom e a reality. Portable Heart Defibrillator Eisenberg says consumers should be able to buy the lifesaving devices over the counter for use at home, where m ost cardiac arrests happen. Then, ifa family m em ber keels over, a relative may be able to shock their sick heart into beating normally again. But two other em ergency medicine specialists want a moratorium on ex panding the public use o f “automated external defibrillators,” their formal nam e, until they can be shown to re duce cardiac arrest deaths in com m u nity settings. “A fterall, some might reason, ‘Why should I exercise, stop smoking, and m onitorm y blood pressure when I can simply park (a defibrillator) under m y couch?’” Drs. Jerem y Brown and Arthur Kellermann w rote in an editorial alongside E isen b erg ’s argum ent in the Sept. 20 Journal ofthe American M edical Association. T he dueling com m entaries represent the extremes o f a doc tors’ debate that intensifies as m ore and more defibrillators are placed in airplanes, offices, casi nos and shopping malls. The $3,000 devices, technically k n o w n as a u to m a te d e x te rn a l defibrillators, are the size o f a toaster and w eigh about 4 pounds. They use an electric shock to restore a natural beat when a heart sud d en ly b e com es e r ratic, dis- r u p t i n g blood flow and c a u s ing victims tolosecon- s c io u s - ness. T h ey ’re designed to treat ventricular fibrilla tion, the most common cause o f sud den cardiac arrest, which the American Heart Association estimates kills about 225,000peopleeach year. Ifused within four minutes o f an attack, they can increase chances o f surviving cardiac arrest from 5 percent to about 50 per cent, Eisenberg said. A u to m ated voices w alk u sers through each step, and research has shown the devices are simple enough for sixth-graders to use with minimal training, says Eisenberg, director o f the em ergency department at the Uni versity o f Washington M edical C en Students Learn How To Win Scholarships M o re than 100 students, p a re n ts, g ran d p a r e n ts and edu- c a to rs packed n o rth e a s t Portland’s Center for SelfEnhancementaudi tori urn recently to get tips on how to conduct an effective and comprehensive scholar ship search. A group o f seven students even traveled from as far the Tacoma to attend the three-hour-longworkshopwith nationally renowned speaker and author Marianne Ragins. Ragins earned more than $410,000 in scholarship money as a high school stu dent and has been featured in everyfriing from Parade to USA Today to most re cently Ebony magazine. She told stu dents to make sure that any scholarship materials they submit are typed, proof read and sent in a timely, professional manner. She encouraged students to make follow up calls, surf the Internet for scholarship information, and showed them examples ofletters to w n te for more information. Forparents, Ragins reminded them to let the students do the bulk o f the work. The Portland Association o f Black H Journalists sponsored the event. Association board members said the workshop was organized to encourage students to pursue a higher education as well as equip them with the tools to make it possible. After the workshop, a number o f par ticipants asked PABJ to bring Ragins back next year. Also as part o f the event PAJB awarded three students pursuing journalism degrees scholarshipsof$2,500. Workshop sponsor Hewlett Packard awarded the students a new computer, colorinkjetprinterand$500giftcertilicate for software. Oregon State University was a workshop co-sponsor and pro vided an information table during the workshop. ter. “The only thing it d oesn't do right now is dial 911 for you,” he said in a telephone interview. Eisenberg likens the current devel opments to the evolution o f cardiopul monary resuscitation, which began in the 1940s as an operating room proce dure and now can be learned over the Internet. The Red Cross last year be gan adding defibrillator training to its CPR courses. Giulia Albergo, 65, ofsuburban Chi c a g o , h a s g o o d re a so n to lik e E isenberg’s idea. Albergo collapsed just after board ing a U ni ted Airl ines flight from Tampa on July 29. Others on board thought she was dead, but a flight attendant revived her with a defibrillator. A lb erg o do u b ts s h e ’d ever buy one herself if given the chance, saying she’s too old and doesn ’ t know how to use them. But she thinks people should be able to get them. “ I’d like to help other people,” she said. “Oh, my gosh, I was very, very lucky.” But doctors like Bob Suter, a board m em ber at the A m erican College o f Emergency Physicians, worry that the devices could be dangerous if used cavalierly by an untrained person. W hile ACEP supports the widespread useofdefibrillators, itsays they should be part o f a program that includes proper training and consultation with doctors. The AMA thinks training is essen tial but otherwise has not weighed in on the availability o f defibrillators. The published debate prom pted an immediate retort from the American Heart Association to the moratorium proposal While the A H A isn’t quite ready to jum p on Eisenberg’s band wagon, it strongly endorses making defibrillators available in public areas where lay people can be trained to use them. “Lives will be saved with wide avail ability o f this device and appropriate training which speeds the delivery o f lifesaving defibrillation to those who need it,” saidDr. Vinay Nadkami. chair man-elect o f the A H A ’s em ergency cardiovascularcare committee. The AHA and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute are studying the effects ofpublic use ofdefibrillators in a $13.5 million, 2 1 /2 -year study, looking at things like cost and victims ’ survival rates. JAMA authors Brown, o f Harvard Medical School, and Kellermann o f Emory University, say a m oratonum is needed until such data is available. “With rare exceptions,” they wrote, “it is not even clear where public ac cess AEDs should be placed because few locations are settings for more than one cardiac arrest p er year.” CPR training saves lives American Heart Association will give classes and health screenings at the African-American Wellness Village S p en d in g 90 m in u tes in a class c o u ld m e a n th e d iffe re n c e b e tw een life an d d e a th fo r a fam ily m e m b e r, b e s t f rie n d o r c o l le ag u e . T h e A m e ric a n H ea rt A s s o c ia tio n w ill g iv e fre e c a rd io p u lm o n a ry re s u s c ita tio n tra in in g at the fifth a n n u a l A fric a n -A m e ric a n W e lln e ss V illa g e , S a tu rd a y at S e lf E n h a n c e m e n t In c ., 3 9 2 0 N . K e rb y A v e ., P o rtla n d . V is ito rs to th e a s s o c ia tio n ’s b o o th at th e e v e n t a lso r e c e iv e fre e b lo o d - p r e s s u r e an d s tro k e sc re e n in g s . C la s s p a r tic ip a n ts c a n c h o o s e a n o o n , 1 :4 5 p .m .o r 3 :3 0 p .m . tim e s lo t to le a rn C P R fo r a d u lts an d firs t a id fo r c h o k in g . “ C a llin g 9 -1 -1 firs t an d d o in g C P R c a n sa v e liv e s fro m h e a rt a tta c k a n d s tr o k e ," s a id Jo h n Washington Mutual I I, , 1 ,. Li i Us M ake a K r .. rv . ™ V, ,. . F an O ui of Y ou C h ism , an A m e ric a n H e a rt A s s o c ia tio n s p o k e sm a n . “ So w e w a n t to m a k e it c o n v e n ie n t as p o s s ib le fo r p e o p le to le a rn th e se s im p le te c h n iq u e s .” S tu d e n ts fro m B e n so n H ig h S c h o o l, alo n g w ith v o lu n te e rs fro m A m e ric a n M e d ic a l R e sp o n se , w ill te ac h th e 9 0 -m in u te c la s s e s . T o re g is te r , c a ll 5 0 3 - 233-0100.