April 27, 2007 – OTTAWA, ON – The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation of Canada is paving the way for defibrillator education in Canadian schools through its pilot project in Ottawa

ACT recently launched the ACT High School Defibrillator Pilot Project—the first of its kind in Canada –  when nearly 20 teachers from four Ottawa high schools were trained to teach their students how to save lives with a defibrillator.

The goal of the pilot is to expand students’ CPR training, increasing their ability to respond to cardiac emergencies in public places. Research shows that when early citizen CPR is combined with early defibrillation, the rate of survival for a person experiencing a cardiac arrest almost doubles.

April 24, 2007 – BISMARK – North Dakota Governor John Hoeven has signed into law Senate Bill No. 2313, which provides for the purchase and distribution of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools. The state superintendent of public instruction will oversee the program, ensuring that school staff are properly trained. The $400,000 needed to support the program will come from the superintendent’s budget.

This is great news for Michelle Tipton of Beulah, who has been working for years to raise awareness about the need for AEDs in schools. Her son, Shannon Huber, then 17, died from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in 1999. It was later discovered that the cause of his SCA was long Q-T syndrome, a hereditary condition that affects the heart’s electrical rhythm.

Tipton is creating a database of schools in North Dakota that have AEDs. So far, 40 of 204 school districts have AEDs, she said.

April 20, 2007 – RENO, NV– Leading local health organizations in the State of Nevada have announced the formation of Nevada Project Heartbeat, the first statewide Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) program in the United States.

Nevada Project Heartbeat’s goal is to improve Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survivability in the State of Nevada. It aims to accomplish this goal by raising the average citizen’s awareness of SCA, and by providing places of business, public agencies, and other organizations with the tools and training needed to make Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) available, accessible, and affordable.

April 11, 2007 – Boston Scientific/Guidant has recalled approximately 73,000 Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators (ICDs) and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-Ds). A faulty component in these devices can cause the batteries to use energy sooner than expected.

“No patients have been harmed, however some devices have required early replacement,” said William Young, Vice President, Reliability and Quality Assurance at Boston Scientific, Cardiac Rhythm Management, in an April 5th letter to patients.

Patients Should Be Optimistic About Return to Normal Life After Surgery

April 11, 2007 – PHILADELPHIA –Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine have discovered that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) -- electric monitoring devices that deliver a lifesaving shock in the event of a cardiac arrest -- help patients with heart problems live longer, more active lives. Further, the study found most patients living with ICDs enjoy a quality of life consistent with average Americans their age and have a high level of satisfaction with the device, offsetting longstanding perceptions that the technology extends but seriously impairs patients’ lives. Peter Groeneveld, MD, MS , Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine and his co-authors report their findings in the April 2007 issue of the journal Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology.