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
tw een life an d d e a th fo r a fam ily
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T h e A m e ric a n H ea rt A s s o c ia
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