By Larry Tate
January 31, 2005

Dr. Terry Gordon, cardiologist at Akron General Medical Center in Ohio, explained the importance of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in responding to public incidents of sudden cardiac arrest. Gordon spoke at the Wednesday Plenary Session. He cited the case of a local boy who collapsed and died during a football game, as one of the 400,000 Americans every year who experience cardiac arrest. Only three to five percent of these people survive, because their survival chances decline by ten percent for every minute help is delayed, and emergency personnel cannot get to them quickly enough.

AEDs, he said, can be used by anyone, and are covered by "Good Samaritan" laws. In about a minute, the machines provide voiced instructions in their proper use and can save lives in the crucial minutes before emergency personnel can reach the scene.

Akron General Medical Center administers the Ohio Schools AED Program, which encourages schools to have AEDs on hand, provides some funding to make this possible, and provides training to school staff in the use of the machines. Gordon initially spearheaded a community-wide initiative to protect young people in Akron area schools from the consequences of cardiac arrest by placing AEDs in every junior and senior high school in Summit County.

He cited as progressive measures a Texas law requiring AEDs in all airports and a program in Rochester (MN), to put AEDs in all police cars. Mayors, he said, have a "unique opportunity" to take the lead in this important area of emergency medicine.