All Fitness Centers must have AEDs? It is the law!
If your facility provides any type of physical exercise... you are required by law to place
An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at your facility. California Health & Safety Code,
Section 104113, effective July 1, 2007.
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Proposal For County Sponsored Legislation
Automated External Defibrillators in Health
Submitted by Helena Jacobson
More and more Americans are joining fitness centers to get in shape. A surprising number of them have undiagnosed heart disease and are putting themselves at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.
According to the National Center for early defibrillation, fitness centers are one of the top 10 places a sudden cardiac arrest may occur.
The CDC had reported, that there are more then 460,000 deaths annually from cardiac arrest (out-of-hospital) in the United States. A victim suddenly collapses and loses consciousness,; he will lose his pulse and will stop breathing. Next, the victim's brain will begin to die between the 4th and 6th minute and without defibrillation, death follows.
Medical studies have proven the sooner a fibrillating heart can be defibrillated, the better the chances are the victim will survive. Each minute that passes reduces the odds of survival by 10%. If defibrillation can be provided within one minute of cardiac arrest, the odds of survival are about 90%. After five minutes, the odds diminish to about 50%. After 10 minutes there is virtually no hope for survival.
Every 42 seconds someone in this country suffers cardiac arrest; the average survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest is a dismal 5% nationally.
Orange County has a population of 2.946 million people. The death rate in the county is 5.8% per 100,000; cardiovascular disease has a mortality rate of 98.6 per 100,000 people in Orange County.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the No. 1 cause of death for people under the age of 35 and 41% of sudden cardiac death in young people occurs during athletic activities or exercise.
Early defibrillation is the only effective treatment for Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Defibrillators have already become standard equipment, like fire extinguishers in many airports, convention centers and schools.
The American Heart Association and The College of Sports Medicine issued a joint position statement urging health and fitness centers to implement AED programs to minimize the time between recognition of cardiac arrest and successful defibrillation.
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute conducted a study in which 1500 defibrillators were placed in 993 community sites in 24 cities. The results showed that victims were twice as likely to survive cardiac arrest when access to an AED was readily available. One study in Ohio found that 17% of the fitness centers reported at least one sudden cardiac event over a five-year period, but only 3 percent of the facilities had AEDs. ABC News recently reported that the chance of Sudden Cardiac Arrest is 17% higher during or after exercise.
When a heart needs a shock, time is crucial. How many lives have to be saved to justify this expense?
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