Susan Collins: Automated External Defibrillator legislation
Posted August 13th, 2008 by staff
The Collins for Senator campaign will begin running its next ad tomorrow.The ad is about the work Senator Collins has done on increasing availability on AEDs -- Automated External Defibrillators.
Senator Collins wrote and passed legislation that created a grant program that allows rural communities to acquire AEDs. (So far, more than $1 million has come to Maine for this purpose.) The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that more than 250-thousand Americans die each year because of cardiac arrest. Many of these deaths could have been prevented with the quick use of an AED. For every minute that a victim of cardiac arrest suffers abnormal heart rhythm, the chances of survival drop 10 percent. According to the AHA, making AEDs standard equipment in police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, as well as in public places such as shopping centers, Ys, and schools, could save as many as 50,000 lives a year.
Senator Collins wrote and passed legislation that created a grant program that allows rural communities to acquire AEDs. (So far, more than $1 million has come to Maine for this purpose.) The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that more than 250-thousand Americans die each year because of cardiac arrest. Many of these deaths could have been prevented with the quick use of an AED. For every minute that a victim of cardiac arrest suffers abnormal heart rhythm, the chances of survival drop 10 percent. According to the AHA, making AEDs standard equipment in police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, as well as in public places such as shopping centers, Ys, and schools, could save as many as 50,000 lives a year.
