By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
When – not if – someone in the Yachats Commons has a cardiac arrest they now have a better chance at survival thanks to a recently-installed defibrillator in the hallway outside the multipurpose room.
And there will be four more placed soon in city facilities – and maybe even one in a downtown Yachats business to possibly help save a life.
The presence of defibrillators in public places came into the spotlight again this week when Bronny James, the son of NBA star LeBron James suffered a cardiac arrest during a summer college basketball practice in Los Angeles and one was used to shock his heart back into rhythm.
While fire departments and Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies carry defibrillators in their vehicles, until recently they were not in public facilities in south Lincoln County.
The city of Waldport does not have them in its buildings, but city manager Dann Cutter indicated this week that may quickly change.
“It’s not a bad idea,” he said. “It’s just not something we’ve invested in yet.”
The idea for Yachats to purchase defibrillators came from wastewater treatment plant operator Dave Buckwald after his son told him about using one as a Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputy. “They’re simple to use and can save lives,” Buckwald’s son told him.
“I looked at it as ‘What’s the difference between that and a fire extinguisher’, which are everywhere,” Buckwald told YachatsNews.
The idea had been brought up previously to city managers, but nothing happened. Buckwald said he mentioned it to interim city manager Rick Sant shortly after his arrival in June.
“He just asked “Can we get this going?’ ” Sant said of Buckwald’s request.
The five defibrillators – costing $11,000 – arrived two weeks later.
“It’s just a good investment,” Sant said. “It’s a good insurance policy if you can save one life.”
Sant said the city will install the other defibrillators at city hall, the wastewater and water treatment plants, the library and may look for a business in the downtown core willing to take one.
Simple to use
From all accounts using a defibrillator is as simple as pushing a button and following the machine’s verbal instructions – but under nerve-wracking conditions, of course.
Paramedics from the Yachats Rural Fire Protection are scheduled to train city staff soon on how to use them. Yachats Youth & Family Activities Program staff have already been trained on how to use the city’s first device installed in the hallway just outside the Commons’ multipurpose room.
“They’re relatively simple to use for lay people,” said Yachats fire assistant administrator Shelby Knife. “You just push the power button and it tells you what to do.”
Defibrillators are standard equipment on all Yachats and Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue engines and response vehicles. Central Coast’s main engine also carries an advanced cardiac monitor, as do local ambulance companies.
COCF&R Chief Jamie Mason said the automated electronic defibrillators also help responders determine if and how a conscious patient’s heart needs to be shocked back into rhythm.
“Every cardiac arrest we have has an AED involved,” he said.
Mason also said there are grants available to help public agencies or communities purchase defibrillators, which can range in cost from $2,300 like the ones the city of Yachats bought to $8,000 for first responders.
“They should be in every public facility,” Mason said. “It’s easy to do that with grants, especially for public buildings.”
About cardiac arrests
A cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, the Washington Post reported this week following news of Bronny James’ incident. Here’s what to know:
- Cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops beating. As a result, blood does not flow to the rest of the body, which can be life-threatening.
- Symptoms include suddenly collapsing, a lack of a pulse, not breathing or struggling for air, and being unconscious, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Sudden cardiac arrest can lead to death, sometimes within minutes. Once the blood flow is cut, oxygen stops flowing to the brain and other organs, which can lead to long-term effects even if one survives.
- According to the CDC, more than 350,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States each year. More than 300,000 deaths are caused by cardiac arrest annually.
- Before a cardiac arrest, a person could experience chest discomfort, shortness of breath, weakness or a pounding heart. The emergency can also come with no warning.
- Cardiac arrest can be caused by a variety of disorders, including cardiomyopathy, which causes problems in the heart muscle that make it difficult to pump blood,and coronary artery disease, when the blood flow to the heart is restricted. Other causes include an arrhythmia, when the heart beats irregularly and heart valve disease.
- In rare cases, cardiac arrest can be caused by a powerful blow to the chest, a condition known as commotio cordis.
- The people most at risk for cardiac arrest are older adults and males, though experts are uncertain why men are more at risk than women. Risk factors include a previous episode of cardiac arrest, coronary heart disease, heart valve disease and congenital heart defects.
- Elite athletes have a higher risk of cardiac arrest because of their repeated exposure to rigorous exercise, which can raise their adrenaline, dehydrate them and otherwise stress them. But sedentary people are generally more at risk for cardiac arrest while exercising than those who are active.
To treat someone suffering cardiac arrest, one should first call 911, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use a defibrillator, which shocks the heart in an attempt to restore normal rhythm. The immediate use of CPR can double or triple the chances of survival.
“Your survival goes down by about 10 percent per minute,” Lili Ayala Barouch, the director of the sports cardiology program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told the Washington Post. “If someone can get to you in less than a minute, your chances of surviving are probably 90 percent or higher.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
We just purchased a defibrillator for Sea Perch RV Resort. Yachats Fire department was very kind to come show our entire staff how to use if need. We appreciate them.
I want to thank Dave Buckwald for spurring the project, and Rick Sant for overseeing the installation of the AED’s, but would also like to extend thanks to Holly Hamilton, former CIP manager for Yachats, and Heide Lambert, the previous city manager, for researching and making the decision to purchase the defibrillators back in the late spring. This has been a project many weeks in the making. While I hope we never need to use them, the first time we do, it will be well worth the investment. Thank you to all who’ve been part of this.