Archive - Mar 2009

Heaven can wait

Tunnels, bright lights, visions of the deceased. Do near-death experiences really offer a glimpse of the afterlife - or is there a more rational explanation?

When doctors returned to check on the patient who had almost died and been in a deep coma before being resuscitated, he thanked them for all the work they had done. He had, he told the surprised team of medics, been very impressed and had watched everything they had done. He had heard all that had been said, too, and, at one point, had been concerned when resuscitation was about to be abandoned. He then went on to describe in detail the room where he had been treated - although he had never been conscious in there.

That near-death experience is one of a number recorded by Dutch doctors and one of thousands of similar cases that have now been documented in a major worldwide study.

In May 2008, around 270 teachers, coaches and nurses in the Escambia County school district, Pensacola, Florida, learnt how to use AEDs.
That training has since paid off.
Just before Christmas, a local school’s band director suffered sudden cardiac arrest while running at school. Someone nearby ran to get the school nurse. The nurse had attended one of those Baptist LifeFlight Outreach Education training classes the previous spring. She immediately applied her training using the AED to resuscitate the teacher. Soon after, emergency medical service transported the teacher to the hospital where he had emergency open heart surgery and recovered fully.
“Saving this life is a direct result of the training we had the privilege of providing our community,” said Patty Trent, training coordinator, Baptist LifeFlight Outreach Education. “This is what community service is all about.”

June 1, 1996, I had just taken a job to build a step down unit from hospital to nursing home at a hospital near my home. I had spent one week in orientation (I was a 30 year Registered Nurse). I had just passed my 50 th birthday in April 1996. I am now 62. On the day I had cardiac death I had been under much stress due to a failing marriage, my children growing up and leaving the nest, and starting a new job. On that day I had a yard sale all day in the heat in front of my Son-in-Laws furniture store. That night I decided to go to an auction in the same town to buy more things to sell for another yard sale. I had taken a sabatacle for about three month from nursing due to having just worked myself down as assistant director of nursing in a 150-bed nursing home. I was under trememdous stress on a daily basis. When I arrived at the auction I saw my daughter( a liscensed practical nurse) and her husband. My husband was not planning to come to the auction.

Upper Arlington City Schools AED program (Project Alive - Saving A Life Is Very Easy) has been in place for about six years. 

This collaborative program between the Upper Arlington Fire Division, the Upper Arlington Schools and community representatives aims to put AED's in all the schools, libraries, community recreation facilities, and police cruisers.

So far, they have placed two AED's in each of the five elementary schools, three AED's in both middle schools and seven AED's at the high school campus.  The project includes training and CPR/AED certification for all students at the High School over a four year period with the American Heart Association HeartSaver AED program.
Students are also trained when they take their required High School Health curriculum and have included CPR certification with all Middle School and High School athletic team captains.

Awareness Publication Receives Two Nominations

PITTSBURGH–March 13, 2009–You Can Save a Life at School™, a publication of the SCA Foundation developed in cooperation with The RedFlash Group, has been named a finalist in the Western Publications Association 2009 Maggie Awards in the Best Supplement category. The cover story, “Saving Kaitlin,” by Laura McNeal, was named a finalist in the Best Public Service Series or Article category. The prestigious annual awards honor the best in magazine publishing.

You Can Save a Life at School™ aims to raise awareness about preventing and treating sudden cardiac arrest in schools, and is part of a national campaign that includes this website, sca-aware.org/schools.

Alexander Martin, Owings Mills, MD – 60 at time of event (2006)

Sandy is a die hard squash player, fit and powerful and of average height. He likes the doubles game best, and is quite competitive. In fact they have an annual championship between his family and the Corrigans, the in-laws, from the Metropolitan club in Washington DC, that’s running on 15 years now.

Nancy Pyrro, Littleton, MA – 49 at time of event (2002)

Nancy was packing boxes at 5:30am. She had sold her condo and needed to get out, but she also had to go to work! It was therefore a stressful period in her life. More stress than she bargained for, and certainly more stress than Wayne, now her husband, anticipated. Nancy complained about a back ache, and also that her chest was painful. She went downstairs and stood outside near his truck. Realizing that Nancy’s complaint was serious Wayne helped her into the truck and they set off for the hospital.
“We were going down the highway and I said, ‘I think I’m going to pass out’ and that was it, I dropped dead.” Nancy said in a calm voice.

Welch Allyn today announced a voluntary worldwide recall of 14,054 AED 10 and MRL JumpStart external defibrillators manufactured between October 3, 2002 and January 25, 2007.

There is a remote chance that these devices may experience low energy shock, unexpected device shutdown, and/or susceptibility to electromagnetic noise interference.  If such issues arise, it may prevent defibrillation of a patient in cardiac arrest and could lead to death.  There have been 20 reported instances of low energy shock, 8 of electromagnetic noise interference, and 11 of unexpected device shutdown.

A new study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals that many North Carolina high schools are not adequately prepared to handle the immediate medical needs of a student or employee who suffers a sudden cardiac arrest on campus. The findings were used to support a new statewide program to place automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in high schools.

The study, scheduled to appear in the May/June 2009 issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal, evaluated how prepared N.C. high schools were for sudden cardiac arrests (SCA). It found that they lacked concise emergency action plans, needed to increase use of AEDs and coordinate more with local emergency medical services (EMS).

NEW YORK–Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have found a strong correlation between depressive symptoms and cardiac events in women

New data published in the March 9, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggest that relatively healthy women with severe depression are at increased risk of cardiac events, including sudden cardiac death (SCD) and fatal coronary heart disease (CHD).

William Whang, M.D.