In the wake of a 12-year-old’s sudden death on a community football field, a group of parents in Jacksonville, FL, has set out to protect other children from sudden cardiac arrest. Their plan to place automated external defibrillators at every athletic field in town got a boost this month when Mike Castleman of Cardiac Science donated one of his company’s defibrillators to the Normandy Athletic Association.
12-year-old Rashad Wallace collapsed and died on the field at the Normandy Football Complex in August. His death started Nancy Goff, a parent and a registered nurse, thinking about how the community could get life-saving treatment to children in the critical early minutes after sudden cardiac arrest.
Goff contacted Castleman, who donated the device. It’s been placed in the kitchen of the athletic field concession area. A dozen parents have been trained in life-saving techniques and in use of the AED — a device that is simple enough that even adults without training can follow step-by-step voice prompts to conduct a rescue.
“Sudden cardiac arrest can happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone,” Castleman told the Jacksonville news media. “I can’t imagine the thought of losing a child.”
Friday, November 14th, 2008 Author: Cardiac Science
We’re hearing from more and more colleges and universities interested in equipping their campuses with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and implementing a Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) program. And, when you think about it, it makes sense that colleges would be pro-active about heart safety.
High population density makes it likely that someone — a student, a staff member, or a visitor — will suffer sudden cardiac arrest while on campus. At the same time, technology awareness in the college community and related research facilities means that people know there’s a way to reduce risk by having AEDs readily available.
This summer Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va, purchased 16 AEDs from us for their new PAD program. They’re using our Powerheart AED G3 Plus defibrillators with Rescue Coach, which provides voice prompts to guide users step-by-step through the rescue process. In addition to defibrillators, the program at Washington and Lee includes training in CPR and AED use for staff and students, and coordination with local emergency medical services.
According to the American Heart Association, the likelihood of a person’s survival after sudden cardiac arrest drops by 7 to 10 percent for every minute that goes by without CPR or defibrillation. W & L is joining a growing number of colleges and universities determined to lower the rate of death from sudden cardiac arrest by making treatment available in those crucial minutes after SCA occurs.
Dr. David Matlock of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria is responsible for the song going through your head right now.
At a recent American College of Emergency Physicians conference, Dr. Matlock announced that the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” from the 1977 hit movie “Saturday Night Fever” could help save a life. With 103 beats a minute, the song has almost the perfect pace (100 beats a minute) for performing chest compressions on a person who has had a heart attack.
“We not advocating turning on the song in the middle of a resuscitation,” Matlock laughed. “If it helps people to sing it out loud, I guess that’s OK.”
Doing compressions correctly can triple the survival rate according to Matlock’s team. For the study, 15 doctors and medical students practiced compressions while listening to the song. They were retested without the song five weeks later and performed an average 113 compressions a minute, within the acceptable range.
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 Author: Barbara Thompson
Cardiac Science was out in force at three Heart Walks to benefit the American Heart Association this year.
Dressed in orange (our corporate color), employees, their families, and friends gathered in Madison, Wisconsin; Seattle, Washington; and Irvine, California for five-kilometer walks to raise awareness and money in the fight against heart disease and stroke.
The Seattle team had its largest turnout ever.
It was the third best-performing team and among top 10 companies overall. With funds totaling $40,500 (our most ever), we were one of a handful of companies that raised more than last year.
Most importantly, we had fun doing it.
We held a book sale, a weenie roast, and a salad bar. My colleague Brooke Thomas coordinated a friendly healthy walking competition among our domestic and remote offices. And in a Cardiac Science tradition, each department assembled elaborate gift baskets that were raffled off. (I bought many tickets for the “Travel basket.” Didn’t win though.)
We matched employee gifts dollar-for-dollar. And VP and Corporate Controller Daphne Taylor was the big fund raiser this year, with a pull of more than $4,200.
This year we also gave away an AED to one lucky donor who gave $25 or more. At the end, Kim Sherrell (one of our engineers) won a Powerheart AED G3 Plus for her donation.
The Heart Walk is one of those events that brings us together as a family and makes Cardiac Science a great place to work.
Monday, September 29th, 2008 Author: Cardiac Science
Cardiac Science chief executive officer and president John R. Hinson attributes the company’s five-year 116 percent revenue growth to a diverse portfolio borne from organic growth and acquisitions. “We sell our primary products – defibrillators (AEDs), electrocardiograph devices (ECGs), cardiac stress, cardiac rehab, Holter systems and EMR/HIS connectivity solutions – into multiple markets (hospital, physician office, and public access),” Hinson said. “The portfolio approach helps us deliver consistent results for our investors.”
“Ultimately,” Hinson added, “our products and strategies are only as good as our ability to deliver consistent quality and dependability. These are at the core of our business proposition.”
40-year-old singer Toni Braxton did a wise thing when she experienced chest pains she couldn’t explain: She went to the doctor and took a stress test.
Braxton discovered that she has microvascular angina (MVA), also known as cardiac syndrome X. According to USA Today (and Cardiac Science), by sharing her story, she performed a great service for thousands of women.
Read more about microvascular angina here, and see your doctor if you experience any chest pains while exercising. That type of discomfort while exercising is abnormal. You should look into it.
It may just save your life.
Cardiac Science manufactures and markets the Quinton Q-Stress cardiac stress system. Now in its ninth generation, Q-Stress is the gold standard in cardiac stress systems.
Found on the Web: Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System, Emory University, and the Henry Ford Health System have come up with simple guidelines to determine when efforts to revive an unresponsive cardiac arrest patient should be terminated. The guidelines were tested using data from more than 5,000 cardiac arrest patients treated in eight metropolitan areas in a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The guidelines can be used as a three-part rule or a five-part rule. The three-part rule, called a ‘basic life support’ or BLS rule, calls for EMS teams to stop their resuscitation efforts if cardiac arrest occurred before EMS arrived, if no defibrillator was used and if the team can’t get the patient’s blood to begin circulating again. The five-part rule, called the ‘advanced life support’ or ALS rule, adds two more criteria — the cardiac arrest had no witnesses at all and no bystander at attempted to perform CPR.
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Ryan Gomes lost his teammate Stanley Myers to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Gomes created Hoops for Heart Health to prevent young athletes from a similar fate.
Gomes donated an automated external defibrillator (AED) to gyms in 12 cities on the Timberwolves’ 2007 - 2008 season schedule, and is not stopping there. In this video from ESPN News, he explains,
“I wanted to be able to touch someone and I’m able to use basketball as a tool. I’m out there doing what I love to do, playing, and now I can voice my opinion and voice what I believe in. And maybe some people will catch on to that just because of where I am.”
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 Author: Barbara Thompson
Andi Atteberry is the Business Development Manager for Tom Ruff Company, a top recruiting firm in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. In her article, she discusses trends she’s seeing in the healthcare sector, who’s hiring and who’s not, and her networking advice for breaking into medical and pharmaceutical sales.
She writes, “Our candidates seem to be very interested in positions selling cardiovascular products, as well as exploring opportunities with the smaller, start-up medical device companies.” She mentions Cardiac Science by name as a company she’s excited about right now.
Check out her article here. What are you finding? Leave a comment.
Andi Atteberry is the Business Development Manager for Tom Ruff Company, a top recruiting firm in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. In her 