O ctober 18, 2000
Page A3
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■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 ­
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