DEFIBRILLATORS for up to 30,000 athletes will be rolled out across sporting grounds after a $252,000 allocation. Blacktown will be the first council to have defibrillators at all its sports grounds.

During a cardiac arrest, defibrillators work by applying high voltage (between 200 to 1000 volts) to send an electric current through the heart to shock it into beating normally again. Elite young athletes are most vulnerable to cardiac arrests. The Heart Foundation said every passing minute without intervention reduced the rate of survival by 10 per cent. The defibrillators are expected to be rolled out by September.

Often the best inspiration comes from your customers. Well the past 10 days Defib has been out and about in the market place – Auckland, Adelaide, Melbourne and Wagga! That’s a few miles to cover, but its all been with the aim of continuing the education of the community of the necessity of having a defibrillator in their communities.

We have been asked some great questions; we have been able to dispel a number of myths and importantly the Defib team has been able to place a number of new defibrillators in a variety of communities.

So instead of keeping that data to ourselves, or waiting for the next marketing newsletter to come out, we thought we would share a few with you.

Do you have to be trained to use an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED)?

No, anyone can use it. At Defib For Life as part of our package we include a training session with all of our units to ensure that people are comfortable on how to use the AED in case of emergency and to encourage any questions.

If one of our players has SCA on the field and it’s raining, do we need to pull them out of the rain?

When faced with an emergency situation, it’s best to follow your first aid training in regards to ensuring that a victim is safe in their surroundings and you protect them, their necks and spine. In regards to using a defibrillator, the Defib for Life recommended units are resistant to moisture and dust, so taking them out of a controlled environment to the sporting field or the school playground is perfectly safe. We would recommend the patient be moved should they be lying in a pool of water, being mindful of other injuries.

Not all AED units offer this, so be mindful when selecting an AED.

Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce has helped secure two new defibrillators at Helensburgh Library and Thirroul District Community Centre and Library.

Chamber Vice President Tanya Parry came up with the idea.

“I reviewed our local surroundings and immediately noted a lack of resources, in particular, the absence of a local accessible emergency department. With the population of Helensburgh and Thirroul containing almost 20,000 people, this is a serious concern. The community response has been overwhelmingly thankful,” she said.

Almost two-thirds of Victorians say they will perform CPR if they see someone in cardiac arrest, a good Samaritan intervention which doubles a victim’s chances of survival.

Some 64 per cent of onlookers attempted CPR when they witnessed someone collapsed from cardiac arrest during the past financial year, according to the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry annual report released on Friday.

That’s up from 35 per cent in 2005/06.

More people also know how to use portable defibrillators than a decade ago, which has further improved the likelihood of a person surviving.

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PARK CITY, Utah — One of four automatic emergency defibrillators (AEDs) installed last summer in Park City may have already saved a man’s life, and it happened during the Sundance Film Festival.

Trevor Christensen was standing 30 feet away when a man collapsed on a sidewalk in the city.

“I ran over there and then let him know I used to be paramedic,” Christensen said.

As Christensen began doing chest compressions on the victim, other bystanders also took action. One called 911 and another ran to find an AED.  As it turns out, the life-saving device happened to have been installed right across the street.

“The AED being right there across the street at the time he went down was just amazing,” Christensen said.

Christensen used the AED to deliver a shock, then continued with chest compressions. About 20 seconds later, he said, the victim responded.

“He actually looked at me and extended his hand up and said ‘Thank you,’ which was wild,” Christensen recalled.

Sgt. Jay Randall, Park City Police Department, credits Christensen and the user-friendly AEDs with saving the man’s life.

“It was a great, great testament not only to the technology, but the people that have the confidence in the technology to go find it and use it,” Randall said.

Christensen stressed that AED devices are not just for people with medical emergency training.

“They make them easy to operate. All you have to do is literally just unzip it or open it up and it tells you what to do,” Christensen said.

Park City police say heart attack calls are fairly common in the city, as the high altitude exacerbates heart and breathing problems.