Posted by americandream on 07/22/2009

     AED devices only work if people who are trained actually use them.  My husband suffered a heart attack while playing basketball at the YMCA in town.  They have an AED device and have people there trained in CPR, but no-one used the device to try to save him.  I have also learned that if they had it would have "significantly improved his chance of survival".   

   "Living the American Dream", this is what my husband wrote on his blog 3 weeks before he died suddenly from a heart attack (November 23rd, 2008).  It was the day before his 38th birthday, we have 3 children; twin boys age 3.5 at the time and an 8 year old daughter.  We were living the American Dream.  Owned our own home in a small town with good schools, we had just started to see the benefits to all of our sacrifices. We really liked each other.  He was my best friend, the person I grew up with and the person I wanted to grow old with. 

     He left to play basketball at the local YMCA here in town.  Business as usual for our family, until I got "the call".  All the YMCA employee said was Jeff had an accident and they would let me know what hospital they were taking him to.  They never called back so I got a babysitter,  called back and went to see how he was.  When I got to the hospital they were still working on him and but they had to tell me there was nothing else they could do.

     How could that be, there was nothing wrong with him.  As you can imagine this was the beginning of the worst days, weeks and now months of my life.   I had to quit my job to take care of the kids (which of course I want to do), I have to rely on babysitters and the kindness of friends to help with all of the house chores that I don't know about.

    To any one who trains people in CPR and for every one who is advocating the placement of AED devices, PLEASE , PLEASE be sure to stress that they only work if you actually use them......hard to believe that all the effort could be for nothing if people are to afraid to use them.....

   

Comments

Submitted by Bob Trenkamp on 11/19/2011

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We - www.slicc.org - are a bunch of volunteers dedicated to reducing the needless death and disability that results from not enough of us knowing how to perform Bystander CPR.

We have programs for your local school systems and churches.

Drop me a line at BobT@slicc.org

Best,

Bob

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