Large venues like shopping malls, sports arena, airports and public learning institutions have a higher survival rate when defibrillators are easily available. Studies show that people who collapse in such places have a chance of survival as compared to when the person could have collapsed at home. Large venues have all sorts of people: paramedics, nurses, doctors and bystanders who are quick to act when there is an emergency.
Large venues also have many automatic external defibrillators that can be operated in less than two minutes. A person who collapses at a mall is considered as an active person who went shopping. A person who suffers a cardiac arrest in a sports arena is believed to be very energetic and when the procedure to normalize the heart’s rhythm is performed survival rates will increase. People who experience a cardiac arrest while at home are mostly very old people whose hearts have very faint rhythms and have underlying conditions.
Bystanders in large venues do not stand and watch while a person dies of a cardiac arrest. People are quick to help and CPR skills are put into use while someone else fetches the defibrillator. Trying to keep the blood flowing to other key body organs is crucial because when the defibrillator shocks the heart, the victim will recover faster when taken to the hospital.
A study shows that out 34% of the total number of cardiac arrest victims in public areas survive when an AED is used to shock the heart. The heart usually has a disrupted rhythm that can be shocked after CPR and 79% of the victims have this condition that increases survival. It is easier when a cardiac arrest person is in a public place with many people because response team dispatched to help arrives within minutes and also emergency team from the nearest hospital will be quick. Many people divide the activities that need to be done for a person to actually survive a heart attack. One person will call 911, the other will fetch the AED while another one will administer CPR.
The fact that CPR alone cannot help a victim’s heart restart means that if a person collapses at home or a large venue without AED procedure, it does not make a difference in survival rates. The important device is the AED because it can detect the faintest heart rhythm that can be shocked and restart the heart. In large venues, defibrillators are labeled and easily to reach so that in case of emergency, a person will take less than one minute to remove it and start the procedure. The fact that about 300, 000 Americans die annually due to cardiac arrest especially old people means that public response is very important when helping a person who has collapsed far away from a health institution. People nowadays train in basic lifesaving skills and in large venues, it is very possible to find one or two people and even more who have the knowledge to use an AED and make necessary steps like remove metal necklaces, shave chest hair, remove wire bras and also move the victim from a place that has a water to a dry area.
