Red Cross Plans Lifesaving Courses on Using Defibrillators

The American Red Cross Los Angeles Chapter launched an initiative Thursday to train individuals to use a portable defibrillators, a new lifesaving device that delivers an electrical shock to victims of sudden cardiac arrest.

The disaster relief agency hopes to make defibrillator training as commonplace as its long-standing and widely taught courses in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, officials said.

The device, dubbed Automated External Defibrillator, was developed by Heartstream, Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Co. The $3,000 machine is a streamlined version of the larger, more complex defibrillator used in hospitals and by rescue workers.

On Thursday, Red Cross officials demonstrated the device for health-care workers, business representatives, educators and reporters at the technology company’s offices on Sepulveda Boulevard.

Using a mannequin, Gail Silverman, a registered nurse and associate director of health education services for the local Red Cross chapter, showed how the three seemingly simple steps needed to operate the machine can save a life.

Silverman turned on the machine, and an automated voice instructed her to place two pads on the victim’s chest and plug the connector wires into the machine.

The machine automatically analyzed the victim’s heart rhythm and determined the level of electrical shock to be delivered before instructing Silverman to “deliver shock now.”

Silverman pressed a button and the electrical shock was administered. “This talks you through whole process,” she said.

As Silverman demonstrated the defibrillator, Josh Pugliese, 17, and his mother, Annie, watched with interest--a similar device saved the Long Beach teenager’s life only seven months ago.

Born with a congenital heart defect, Josh has been under a doctor’s care all of his life.

Josh, who has no memory of the incident last August, had just finished water-skiing with his friend Brandon Peters, and was sitting in a beach chair at Long Beach Marine Stadium when he went into sudden cardiac arrest, Annie Pugliese said.

Brandon immediately administered CPR while his father, a Long Beach police officer who had been piloting the boat, called 911, Pugliese said. The emergency call alerted a Harbor Patrol boat that had been outfitted with a portable defibrillator only three days earlier.

Since then, Josh has had surgery to replace the defective valve and is in good health, Pugliese said.

“He would not be here today,” she said, “if it were not for the machine.”

Automated External Defibrillators are being used on commercial airlines, in shopping malls and sports arenas. The Red Cross hopes that more corporations will have them available in case an employee suffers cardiac arrest.

For more information about defibrillator training classes, call the Red Cross at (800) 627-7000.