Page 76 - OHS, June 2020

DEFIBRILLATORS & CPR
Saving Lives: Why CPR & AED Training Matter
None of us expect the unexpected. With 10,000 cardiac arrests in the workplace every year, you should understand the benefits of CPR training.
BY GINA MAYFIELD
72 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2020
www.ohsonline.com
When it comes to ensuring safe and healthful work conditions, we tend to focus on finding and fixing commonly recognized hazards such as clearly pre- ventable injuries and illnesses. While these dangers certainly warrant our attention, what about expecting the unexpected, such as an employee experiencing a cardiac arrest outside the hospital? Is your workplace fully prepared for an incident that requires CPR or even a defibrillator?
June is CPR Awareness Month, with the first few days designated as National CPR and AED Aware- ness Week. Both occasions were designed to bring attention to the importance of CPR and AED train- ing that organizations can provide to keep their em- ployees safe, prepared to respond and...alive. Trained employees who can properly and quickly respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest before emergency re- sponders arrive can help save a life.
Cardiac arrest—an electrical malfunction in the
heart that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs—is a leading cause of death. Each year, more than 350,000 EMS-assessed out-of-hospital car- diac arrests occur in the United States, according to the American Heart Association (AHA)
Be Ready: CPR
When a person has an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from someone nearby.
According to the AHA, about 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, especially if performed immediately, can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival.
But most U.S. employees are not prepared to handle cardiac emergencies at work because they simply lack the training, according to findings from two surveys from AHA as part of its Workplace Safety Training Initiative. Between February and April 2017,
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