Heart Safe program

Efforts underway to expand the availability and use of Defibrillators throughout Warwick Warwick — When she was just 23, Deirdre Hamling was an idealistic college student. On a day like many others, Hamling met a friend for lunch. The friend, who just ran 10 miles, felt dizzy. Within a short time, she collapsed and died in Hamling’s arms. A few years later, while working on Wall Street, Hamling witnessed a man collapse on the street just outside her office window. He, too, died. A few years ago, she went to visit a friend here in Warwick. There was a note on the door that there had been a death in the family. She later found out it was her friend’s 14-year-old grandson. “I thought, what has to happen before I do something,” said Hamling What Hamling did was get educated on Sudden Cardiac Arrest, the leading cause of death in the United States. According to the American Heart Association, Sudden Cardiac Arrest is a condition when the heart stops unexpectedly. This is usually caused by ventricular fibrillation, an abnormality in the heart’s electrical system. When SCA occurs, blood stops flowing to the brain, the heart, and the entire body. The person collapses and is clinically dead until someone helps immediately. Immediately is the key. Hamling has been instrumental in getting Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in Warwick schools. As a matter of fact, there are currently 39 AEDs at Warwick Valley High School. “Every coach has an AED,” said Hamling. “Most of them are located in the athletic department, but coaches check them out when they go to a game or a practice. This is vital because the sooner someone intervenes, the better the chances of survival.” Effort grows We have all heard the stories about young, healthy boys and girls who collapse and die on a baseball field or after running a race or playing a basketball game. These seemingly healthy people die unnecessarily unless there is access to an AED. Rachel Moyer, a former teacher in Port Jervis, has lived that horror. Her 15-year-old son, Gregory, had just played the first half of a varsity basketball game on Dec. 2, 2000, in East Stroudsburg, Pa. He looked up into the stands at the half and, although his team was behind, he gave her a knowing look that they had done okay. Two minutes later, she was summoned to the locker room after Greg had collapsed. There was no AED in the school and it took 35 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Greg had stopped breathing and, what they thought was a seizure, was actually sudden cardiac arrest. He died in his mother’s arms. While Moyer lost her only son, she was left with a mission: “I don’t want anyone to have to live with what we are living with.” Moyer and Hamling are spreading the word in Warwick and all of Orange County. When Hamling announced she was raising funds to buy AEDs a few years ago, no one showed up to the fund raising event. But she did get a call from local doctor, Alex Joanow and his wife, Marie. “Dr. Joanow said he would buy the defibrillators,” said Hamling. “He had the idea of having a fair at St. Anthony Community Hospital last year to help educate people. He’s been a great partner in this.” A lot has changed since then. Hamling has indeed been raising funds. State Sen. Thomas Morahan secured an $18,000 grant for the cause. Goal: As common as fire extinguishers Two weeks ago, Hamling organized a meeting at Town Hall in an effort to get more people on board and make Warwick a “Heart Safe” community. “There is a protocol to follow,” said Hamling. “Dutchess County is a Heart Safe county. All of Massachusetts is heart safe. We want to make Warwick heart safe.” First and foremost is spreading the word about AEDs. Hamling’s goal is to get AEDs just about everywhere. They are in all of the schools, thanks to a push by Moyer to get a law passed in New York state requiring AEDs in all schools throughout the state. But there has to be more. “We want them in libraries and restaurants, supermarkets — everywhere people gather,” said Hamling. In 2000, the Warwick police were equipped with AEDs thanks to the generosity of Mary Bradner, who purchased four defibrillators for each police car and the police station. Last September, entertainer Dick Wells collapsed while performing at the Railroad Green. He survived thanks in large part to the immediate availability of an AED. Statistics show that time is of the essence when sudden cardiac arrest occurs. Every minute a victim goes without defibrillation, the chances for survival decrease by seven to 10 percent. Having AEDs close by allows individuals to deliver potentially life-saving defibrillation. Hamling also wants to get permanent AEDs at all of the athletic fields in town. The Little League organization has three AEDs. Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton said the town has committed to buy three climate control stations in which to house the permanent AEDs, which must be kept between 32 and 95 degrees in order to function properly. AEDs are easy to use, Moyer said, with the device giving the instructions to the user. The device also won’t shock the victim unless it detects cardiac arrest. There is no decision to be made by the person helping. Moyer’s son, Greg, played three sports each school year and had three school physicals as well. Nothing was detected in the routine exams. “EKGs (electrocardiograms) will detect heart abnormalities in healthy kids,” said Moyer. “The heart changes three times during puberty. We should be performing EKGs on our kids, especially if someone in the family has had a heart problem.” Texas is taking a step toward that, now providing sixth graders with heart exams during their regular school physicals. Today, seven years after losing her son, Moyer doesn’t go anywhere without a defibrillator. She has been instrumental in passing legislation requiring AEDs in schools throughout the country—and in getting funding for them. “You should see a defibrillator as often as you do a fire extinguisher in a school,” said Moyer. “You have fire extinguishers so many feet apart. Why? Because people were dying. Now, seven people die each day from fires. That number was so much higher. Nine hundred people each day die from sudden cardiac arrest. We have to get the public more aware.” Is this a heart attack? The short answer is no. As described by the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is the instantaneous loss of electrical heart function. The heartbeat stops abruptly. The rhythms of the heart can only be restored with defibrillation. A heart attack, by comparison, causes a loss of blood supply to heart muscle tissue, causing the tissue to die. It may lead to cardiac arrest but it is not cardiac arrest. SCA is an electrical issue; heart attack is a plumbing issue. Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) deliver a pulse of electricity, the single most effective way to restore the normal rhythm of a heart. Most occurrences of cardiac arrest in young people happen in public places, hence the push for AEDs throughout the community. Some facts and figures: In December 2002, just two weeks after legislation took effect in New York state requiring AEDs in all schools, a young woman was saved at BOCES in Goshen using an AED. There have been 38 lives saved in New York state schools since the legislature passed the measure. Time is not on your side. If you go into sudden cardiac arrest, the best chance you have to survive is getting defibrillated in two minutes or less. Every minute after that, the chances of survival drops 10 percent. Three people in Warwick have been saved because of the availability of AEDs. One in every 500 kids who walk through our nation’s schools has an undetected enlarged heart. Deaths caused by sudden cardiac arrest each day equal 900. Between 7,000 and 10,000 kids per year die from SCA. If an AED is used in less than three minutes after an attack, the survival rate is 80 percent. Pennsylvania was the first state in the nation to require AEDs in its schools. Thanks to lobbying by Rachel Moyer, the state also provided $2.4 million to fund the project. Moyer and her husband, John, began the Gregory Moyer Defibrillation Fund in memory of their son. Through this fund, the Moyers have been able to provide AEDs to organizations in 30 states. There are four critical steps — called the cardiac chain of survival — to follow to help someone in cardiac arrest. 1. Early access to care — call 911 immediately. 2. Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation — know CPR. 3. Early defibrillation — considered the most vital of the four steps. 4. Early advanced cardiac life support as needed. For more information on sudden cardiac arrest and automatic external defibrillators, check out these Web sites: www.parentheartwatch.org, www.gregaed.org, www.redcross.org, www.americanheart.org. And mark your calendar for Thursday, Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. Do something really special for your heart and those who you love. Attend the assembly at Warwick Valley High School at 8:55 a.m. to learn more about sudden cardiac arrest. Contact Deirdre Hamling for more information or to volunteer at dah@zrci.com.