JHU begins installation of defibrillators

The Johns Hopkins University's Homewood Campus, as well as the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI), has recently implemented the installation of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in several locations in an attempt to improve emergency medicine administration on campus.

Believed to be the first such program among institutions of higher learning, the initiative has provided for the placement of more than sixty AEDs on areas of Homewood and the medical institutions that more than 600 people occupy, such as cafeterias, gymnasiums, parking lots and libraries, according to John M. Lazarou of JHMI.

This past week has seen the installation of several AEDs on the Homewood campus: one at the security desk of the Milton S. Eisenhower library and several at the Ralph S. O' Connor Recreation Center (Rec Center).

An AED is a device that delivers an electric shock to the heart in times of cardiac arrest or chaotic heart activity.

Statistics show that if such treatment, which helps to restore a normal heartbeat, is administered after five minutes of cardiac arrest, the survival rate is only 40 percent, and after 10 minutes, the survival rate is only five percent, according to Edward J. Bernacki, M.D., M.P.H., chairman of the Joint Committee for Health, Safety and Environment of the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital.

Cardiac arrest continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States.

Anne Irwin, lifetime fitness coordinator at the Newton H. White, Jr. Athletic Center and the Rec Center, explained that the American College of Sports Medicine had advocated several criteria for the installment of an AED in a health and fitness facility.

These included the serving of more than 2,500 persons and of having a greater than five minute response time from emergency medical services in administering the first treatment in a case of cardiac shock, both of which the Rec Center met.

Under such circumstances, " I was greatly in favor of having the AEDs installed in the Recreation Center," said Irwin.

Bill Harrington, director of recreation and facilities at the Rec Center, said, "The University has made a commitment to placing automated external defibrillators around campus."

The AEDs, which Harrington said have become the "CPR of our generation," will dramatically increase a person's chance of survival in the event of cardiac arrest.

Irwin explained that the chance of heart attacks increases during or after exercise, so having the defibrillators installed in the Rec Center was a natural choice.

Training or use of the AEDs has already commenced for eight full-time staff members at the Recreation Center and 50 members of the security force. The long range plan will equip most facilities of the Homewood Campus with AEDs, as well as mobile security units that can transport the AEDs to areas where one is not permanently located in the event of an emergency. In November, training will begin for staff at the East Baltimore Johns Hopkins campuses.