Defibrillators for Worksites

« Back to Latest News

28 October 2011

The Defibrillator has come to be a trusted tool of professional responders and designated response teams in the workplace. Businesses not only provide services to customers, but also have to care for their employees. Given the number of people present and the considerable amount of time and activity spent at work, the risk of someone suffering cardiac arrest at your facility is very real. Timing is critical without treatment, victims have only minutes to live. With quick response, this condition is readily treatable with survival rates well over 50%. Unfortunately, most of the time, the necessary life-saving equipment does not arrive in time. Now there is something you can do to improve the odds dramatically for your customers and employees with a solution that is easy to use and inexpensive.

When a person suffers a cardiac arrest giving CPR at best delivers about a third of the oxygen the body requires to survive, so this is just a holding measure to keep the vital organs oxygenated until measures can be taken to restart the heart and provide a viable cardiac output. Each minute a persons heart is not functioning reduces the chance of survival by approximately 10% ,so the optimal time for administering a defibrillator shock is in the first couple of minutes. Hence defibrillation should not be delayed until the arrival of an ambulance which can take up to 8 minutes or more.

The most common cause of a heart attack is ventricular fibrillation and this can be converted back to normal cardiac rhythm by a shock delivered very soon after the onset of this condition. First responder defibrillators are safe to use even by untrained personnel and will only shock specific conditions. The voice function will talk through the procedure for those that are unaware of how to carry out defibrillation. The UK Resuscitation Council recommends that untrained members of the public willing to attempt defibrillation be encouraged to do so. Early defibrillation is an essential step in resuscitation procedures and can offer a significantly increased chance of survival , permitting the casualty to reach hospital alive and receive definitive care.

Defibrillators are available from various stockists including www.stjohnsupplies.com, www.homeheart.co.uk and many more. These companies also offer training with prices for the defibrillator starting from £600.