|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
May 6, 2004 American Airlines automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have saved the lives of 50 people in the seven years since American began installing AEDs on its fleet of aircraft. Save No. 50 came Tuesday night at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport when a flight attendant at a boarding gate used the AED to save the life of a 67-year-old Virginia man deplaning a flight from Reno, Nevada. The man collapsed outside the gate boarding door. A doctor began CPR and the flight attendant brought the AED from the aircraft and applied the pads to the man's chest. In a few seconds, the device voice-prompted the flight attendant to administer a shock, accomplished by pushing a button. She delivered three shocks before the victim was revived. Four days earlier, a 58-year-old passenger, an American Airlines employee, collapsed in his seat during the boarding process for a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Miami. He had no pulse, was unconscious and not breathing. Flight attendants got him to the floor, retrieved the AED and administered one shock. In November 1996, American became the first U.S. carrier to announce that it would equip its fleet of aircraft with AEDs. The program was launched on May 1, 1997 and on Feb. 18, 1998, Robert Giggey of Mebane, North Carolina, became the first AA passenger to be saved. He collapsed on board an aircraft after rushing to catch a connecting flight at D/FW airport. He and his wife, Carmen, became champions of getting defibrillators installed in public places. On April 12, 2004, The FAA required AEDs to be on all commercial passenger aircraft of a certain size. To date, American has had 89 AED events in which a shock was delivered. This means American Airlines has achieved a 56 percent survival rate, compared to the national average of seven percent. "One reason for our success is that the defibrillator is just yards away from the passenger and American's flight attendants are trained to use it," said Linda A. Campbell, a registered nurse in American's corporate medical department. She was instrumental in getting American's program underway by training, at that time, 27,000 flight attendants. Campbell always speaks, usually within hours, with the families of those save. "They are so grateful, because in most cases, there was never a clue that their loved one had a medical problem, much less almost dying from it," Campbell said. Many of the passengers end up having stents placed in their arteries or pacemakers installed, or undergoing bypass surgery. She said in three cases the doctors could find nothing wrong with the patient until they read the electrocardiogram printout the AED provides. Tuesday's 50th save was especially gratifying to Campbell. She retired from the airline on Wednesday.
|
