In the middle of a routine soccer game late last year, St. Albert resident Allan Robertson fell to the ground. The 57-year-old man went into sudden cardiac arrest on the field.
His life was saved as a result of a quick-thinking teammate – an off-duty emergency medical technician – and a lifesaving automated external defibrillator (AED).
“I’m very lucky to be here,” he said. “Without it, I don’t believe I would have been revived.”
Robertson was unconscious with no heartbeat for roughly four minutes. He endured several rounds of CPR before being shocked by the AED and eventually being revived.
He has since had a permanent AED implanted and has made a complete recovery.
When a 911 call is made for situations like this, dispatchers will soon be able to direct callers to the closest AED — often the difference between life and death.
The Public Access to Defibrillation program is set to kick off this summer and will provide an online database to both 911 dispatchers and the public, detailing locations and maintenance history of AEDs throughout the province.
“We expect to see lives saved,” said John Hein, program coordinator. “As word gets out and as the information about AEDs becomes more popular, we anticipate that more and more people will be saved.”
The registry was created by AHS’ Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and was inspired by Edmonton’s online AED registration system prior to the health care system’s amalgamation into AHS.
An AED monitors heart rhythms and when it detects the heart has stopped, it will provide an electric shock to restart the heart. The equipment provides audible instructions when engaged.
This is the only program of its kind Canada-wide and is aimed at giving ordinary citizens access to the equipment in the crucial moments following cardiac arrest.
“With the ambulance response times anywhere up to 10 minutes or greater, depending on the community, time is essential,” Hein said. “For every minute that a person’s heart is not beating, their survivability drops by 10 per cent.”
The program costs roughly $20,000 per year as a result of website development and registry maintenance.
The program will also introduce a total of 120 AEDs to communities throughout the province, based on application and necessity.
“They are being offered to any non-profit organization or community that feels that they have a need for an AED,” Hein said, adding each AED costs roughly $1,500.
Defibrillators are voluntarily added to the database by the organization. There are about 600 AEDs in the database out of roughly 5,000 in the province.
St. Albert has AEDs at both Fountain Park Recreation Centre and Servus Credit Union Place.
The program is being implemented and is expected to be fully operational by early 2013. For more information on the program, visit www.heart-safe.ca.
