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RECEIVED FEB 17 1998 MEMORANDUM CLERK TO THE BOARD TO: Commissioner Caroline Ginn FROM: Doug Wright, Director` Emergency Services ` DATE: February 16, 1998 SUBJECT: INFORMATION RELATING TO THE USE OF AN AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATOR You have asked for information regarding the use of Automatic External Defibrillators by personnel other than trained EMS personnel as well as liability concerns and the potential for injury to patients and bystanders. 1. External defibrillation was first used in 1956. The first device was developed by an electrical engineer as a tool to save linemen that had been shocked while working on power lines. 2. An AED really "jump stops" a heart. In fibrillation, the chambers in the heart cannot fill and pump blood throughout the body as would occur normally. The AED interrupts the random electrical impulses in a fibrillating heart allowing the heart to stop very briefly - and begin beating again in an organized fashion. 3. Survival from cardiac arrest averages about 10% nationwide. Given cardiac arrest, chances of survival diminish rapidly with time, about 10% per minute, from onset of arrest to defibrillation. After 10 minutes, few survive. Law enforcement officers are, in many cases, first on the scene of a cardiac arrest, and use of the AED, until the paramedics arrive with more advanced equipment (12 lead defibrillator), will increase the survival rate. 4. It should be noted that the AED will treat the ventricular fibrillation, but will not put oxygen into the blood or circulate the blood throughout the body, only CPR can do these things. Prior to AED's the law enforcement officer could only give CPR, but it is the combination of CPR and automatic external defibrillation that will make a definitive difference in saving lives. 5. It's difficult to misuse AED's since they are designed to distinguish between heart rhythms that require electric shock from those that do not. The AED will only deliver a shock if the heart rhythm requires it. It is nearly impossible - for even the most inexperienced operator - to inadvertently shock someone that does not need it. Training will inform AED users not to shock a person laying in the water and not to be touching a patient when the AED is in operation. 6. The power in an AED shock can be described as energy or voltage. It delivers energy in approximately 1/1000 of a second, the same amount of energy would light a 100 watt light bulb for 2-3 seconds. Voltage produced by a defibrillator is approximately 3,000 volts. February 17, 1998 17 ��pp I.0!K ,��.J4