Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs)

It was the evening of December 2, 2000. My 15 year-old son, Greg, was playing basketball for Notre Dame High School against cross-town rival East Stroudsburg North High School in rural Pike County, Pennsylvania. It was the very first game in the school's brand new multi-million dollar gymnasium. Befitting the occasion, the game was on local television.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is one of the leading causes of death in this country. According to the American Heart Association, SCA claims the lives of over 250,000 people die each year, more than all forms of cancer combined.

A recent article in The Boca Raton News makes the following important points about improving the odds of survival for athletes who experience sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) by having Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) at every athletic event:

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are manufactured and sold under guidelines issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Current FDA regulations make AEDs, like many drugs, available only to those with a physician's prescription. Simply finding a physician willing to write the necessary prescription, however, is not enough; in order for an AED or Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) program to be safe and effective, the program needs constant oversight by a medical director.

Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about automatic external defibrillators (AEDs).

Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) may be used for children 1 to 8 years of age who have no signs of circulation. Ideally the device should deliver a pediatric dose.

There are fourteen steps to starting and running an AED program in your community.

There are many AED products on the market. The "best" AED is the one that is closest in the event of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). No AED has been proven to be scientifically superior to the others and, because of the nature of the product, it is unlikely that there will ever be a Consumer Reports-type rating of these medical devices.

Medical directors of AED programs perform a variety of important functions: picking the right AED to purchase, writing the prescription (one is needed for most AEDs), supervising training, developing the rescue protocol,

AED programs need "champions" to be successful: a parent that has lost a child to sudden cardiac arrest, an employee with a congenital heart. condition, a volunteer fire fighter or EMT who knows first-hand that AEDs save lives, or someone who is just simply passionate about the need for an AED program. A champion is the person a committee needs to convince everyone that they really should get on board. She is the one who keeps on pushing when the odds seem to be stacked against the AED program ever happening.