County health officials encourage AED registration
June 13, 2012
By Staff
King County public health officials launched a campaign June 4 to encourage businesses and organizations to adopt and register automated external defibrillators — portable devices designed to use electrical therapy to treat people suffering from cardiac arrest.
The effort, called the Shockingly Simple Campaign, is meant to encourage AED owners to register the devices with the county.
The registration allows 911 dispatchers to locate the nearest AED during emergencies.
“AEDs don’t work if we can’t find them, so after purchasing an AED it is absolutely crucial to register them through King County,” said Dr. Mickey Eisenberg, medical director for the King County EMS Division of Public Health – Seattle & King County.
AED owners can register the devices on the Public Health – Seattle & King County website, http://kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ems/community/aed/preregistration.aspx.
Officials said fewer than 1,000 businesses and organizations countywide have registered AEDs.
In many cases, AED use is a cardiac arrest patient’s only chance for survival.
Each year, more than 300,000 people in the United States die from sudden cardiac arrest, but studies show a 70 percent to 80 percent chance of survival if AED use occurs within minutes.
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