A Burnaby woman who lost her fit, 43-year-old husband to a sudden cardiac arrest six years ago is “thrilled” with a new defibrillator registry launched this month.
The B.C. AED (automated external defibrillator) Registry is a provincial database that will allow emergency dispatchers to help callers trying to save someone from a heart attack find a nearby AED.
Whether the defibrillators are in a drugstore, church, school, hockey rink or individual home, the registry will allow dispatchers to locate all registered AED’s withing a 300-metre radius of the incident.
Once Good Samaritans get their hands on the life-saving devices, dispatchers can then guide them through how to use them until paramedics arrive.
“That’s huge,” said Denise Giammaria, director of the Gianfranco Giammaria Memorial Society.
Her organization – founded in 2008, after her husband Gianfranco died of a sudden cardiac arrest during a hockey game – has placed 64 AEDs in public places in Burnaby, Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Pitt Meadows.
Although Giammaria would like to see a law making AEDs mandatory in certain kinds of venues, she’s pleased with the new registry.
“We are thrilled that they’ve made these advances,” she told the NOW. “We just encourage anyone who doesn’t have an AED to look into acquiring one and those who do have an AED that they register it because they do save lives.”
Anyone can register an AED, but registrants are required to complete monthly maintenance checks and will receive email reminders to change AED pads and batteries.
B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) will also provide postincident support.
There are already 288 AEDs in the registry, but hundreds more are still unregistered, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation is urging anyone who owns one of the devices to get it online.
“It only takes a few minutes to register your device,” stated a Heart and Stroke press release. “Those few minutes can save a life.”
For more information or to register an AED, visit www.bcpadprogram.ca.
