ATLANTA, GA -- To further the effort of making Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson "the safest airport in the world" for cardiac events, officials announced that the airport has completed installation of 285 new Cardiac Science G5 AEDs—one every 75 feet—in every terminal.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport receives an average of 24 medical calls a day and deploys an automated external defibrillator approximately 10 times a month on average. The program will help ensure the safety of travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson by upgrading the AED fleet to the latest technology.
More people travel through Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport every year than any other airport worldwide. That includes other major airports such as Chicago O'Hare, Beijing Capital International and London Heathrow. The probability that a traveler might experience a cardiac arrest on any given day is higher than at most public places which have less traffic.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States every year. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is an abrupt loss of heart function causing blood to stop flowing to the brain and other vital organs, and causing the person to collapse. SCA can occur among people of all ages and is often fatal if not treated within minutes of onset. Early CPR and early use of an AED are critical in increasing survival outcomes—in fact, the American Heart Association recommends early defibrillation within three to five minutes for the best chance at survival. That's where Hartsfield-Jackson's new fleet of AEDs comes into play.
"We are very pleased that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport chose to deploy Cardiac Science G5 AEDs," said Dev Kurdikar, President and CEO of Cardiac Science. "The G5 has many features that make it suitable for such a deployment, including self-tests for rescue readiness, the ability to increase shock energy levels if needed, and the capability of switching the language of the voice prompts with the touch of a button."
More than 270,000 passengers travel through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's seven concourses and 207 gates on a daily basis.
SOURCE: Cardiac Science