Cardiac arrest can happen in any place and at any time. And if local facilities have the proper equipment and training, it may save someone’s life.
Jersey City Risk Manager Peter Soriero and Mario Pozo, Assistant Director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at the Jersey City Medical Center, spoke at the Aug. 4 City Council caucus meeting to encourage city offices and other local organizations to learn to administer CPR and have the equipment to do so in case someone goes into cardiac arrest.
Soriero encouraged the city to become a “HeartSafe Community,” and called on employees to undergo CPR training (which city employees did on Aug. 12 at City Hall).
The HeartSafe Community program is already being undertaken in states such as Connecticut in collaboration with the American Heart Association.
To participate, city offices and community organizations need to have a specified number of staff who are trained to use Automated External Defibrillation (AED), to provide CPR, and to provide First Aid.
Pozo said 950,000 Americans die every year of cardiac arrest, and it is the leading cause of death in New Jersey.
City Councilman Michael Sottolano commented that private schools don’t have CPR training, and there should be legislation requiring that training.
The HeartSafe Community program has the following goals: promoting and implementing AEDs and First Aid kits in public buildings, private buildings, schools and health clubs; offering CPR, First Aid and emergency training to all city and county employees; and instituting CPR, First Aid, and emergency training as a requirement to graduate from high school.197 deaths in state per day
According to the 2008 National Vital Statistics Report, 20,655 people, or 28 percent of the state’s deaths for 2005, were from heart disease. Also, there were 3,614 deaths in New Jersey that year from stroke.
Of the approximately 197 deaths per day in New Jersey in 2005, 57 died as the result of heart disease, and 10 died from stroke.
Cardiac arrest is the abrupt ceasing of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively.
A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain.
There were nine bills introduced this year in the New Jersey State Legislature that complement the HeartSafe Community initiative, including requiring Police Departments to have cardiac defibrillators, and requiring public and non public high schools to have a person on-site trained to administer CPR. Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.