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Community Corner

Westwood Rotary, NJ Bob Stickel Speaks About Making the Greater Westwood Area a Heart Safe Community

The Westwood Rotary Club was pleased to have Robert Stickel, President of Lifesavers, Inc. as their guest speaker. Bob founded Lifesavers in 1992. It is the largest American Heart Association Training Center in NJ, and one of the Top Ten in the United States. They are also the largest distributor in the state of AEDs (automated external defibrillators)

450 people die each day of Cardiac arrest. However, as a nation, we do not focus our attention on this. There is a small window of opportunity measured in minutes where it may be possible to bring a person back into the living.

Bob spoke about the importance of the “system” in saving a cardiac arrest victim (* the chain of survival), including the need for early defibrillation of the victim using an AED. He also discussed his ideas for making the greater Westwood area a Heart Safe Community.

The national survival rate for cardiac arrest is in the single digits, however, some communities are able to achieve a survival rate of 50% or higher from cardiac arrest associated with ventricular fibrillation – the rhythm with the best chance of resuscitation.

For example, if you collapse and become unresponsive in the Seattle area, your survival rate is greater than anywhere else. The reason is everyone in the Seattle area knows CPR, including how to use an AED, and everyone involved in the chain of survival there is part of a qualitative improvement system that monitors and adjusts to keep it that way.

Find out what's happening in Westwood-Hillsdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

 

Find out what's happening in Westwood-Hillsdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

 

Bob also spoke about Janet’s Law which requires all public and non-public schools to have an AED by September 1, 2014. The AED must be accessible during the school day and when a sponsored athletic event or practice is taking place.

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