By Shay Hughes

Few things are as frightening as the idea of a sudden cardiac arrest. Different from a heart attack, which is caused by a blockage in the heart that impedes blood flow, sudden cardiac arrest is a malfunction of the heart’s electrical system. It’s also the number one cause of death in the United States, and it can occur without warning.

Two thirds of the 465,000 deaths caused by sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) each year occur at work, home or during community activities. That’s why it is vitally important for businesses and public spaces to be equipped in the event that tragedy strikes. The American Heart Association states that CPR alone is not effective in saving the life of a SCA victim, but an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) can increase the chance of survival to 70% or more if used within three minutes of the victim collapsing.

At Hughes Marino we recently made the decision to start an AED safety program, making the life-saving devices available in all of our offices. The average time it takes for EMS workers to arrive on the scene after a 911 call is 8-12 minutes, which is not quickly enough to save the life of a cardiac arrest victim. Without timely access to an AED, only 5% of SCA victims survive. In light of this startling statistic, we knew that the best way to protect our team members was to install AEDs in our workplace.

We partnered with a company called Cardiac Solutions to manage our AED safety program, maintain the machines, and train our team on CPR and AED rescue procedures. Thankfully, AEDs are very easy to use, and you don’t need any training to save someone’s life with one in an emergency. In fact, in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest, if you call 911 the dispatcher will direct you to the location of the nearest AED and talk you through how to use it. If you’re in our neighborhood, that location may just be the Hughes Marino office.

The importance of AEDs in the workplace has become better understood in recent years, and we are proud to be among the many companies that are embracing them as a way to make our team members, visitors, and neighbors a little bit safer. We hope we never have to use them, but if we do we’ll be ready.

If you’d like to learn more about starting an AED safety program for your company, contact Lori Roche, Senior VP of Sales for Cardiac Solutions at 678-524-3312 or lroche@cardiac-solutions.net.