MEDICAL staff at the Duhaney Park Health Centre in St Andrew received a significant boost to their cardiac emergency capabilities last Friday as they were gifted the facility’s first automated external defibrillator (AED).

The donation, which was being made by the Rotary Club of Trafalgar New Heights, was facilitated through a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA).

Club President Franchesca Francis told the Jamaica Observer that the AED, which cost US$2,500, was a response to the cardiac emergencies in the country.

“Our district theme for this year is ‘Recognise needs, transform lives’ and our Rotary international theme is ‘Unite for good’ so our district governor, Professor William Aiken, charged us to focus on cardiovascular health. So, we saw it fit to acquire this AED to donate to the Duhaney Park Health Centre, to advance its response to cardiac emergencies,” said Francis.

“We do a lot of community service in the community of Maverley so we try to uplift the residents through various projects including our annual health fair — and given that this clinic [Duhaney Park] is the closest functioning clinic to Maverley, we saw it fit to hand over the AED to this particular clinic. In the event of any cardiac arrest the medical staff will be able to respond quicker and save a life,” added Francis.

Consultant medical officer of health for the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department, Dr Audre McIntosh welcomed the donation.

She said while cardiac emergencies are not seen at the facility frequently, the initiative allows the facility to be the second of the 28 curative health centres in Kingston and St Andrew to have a defibrillator.

“There are therefore 26 other health centres that we are trying to procure cardiac defibrillators for because it’s essential in the treatment of patients and the mortality and morbidity of the patients… Patients do turn up as an emergency with cardiac arrhythmias — meaning cardiac arrest — and this instrument is vital in reverting the rhythm that caused the cardiac arrest.

“What we are presently doing is what we call CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and we call the ambulance and continue to do CPR in the ambulance and take them down to Kingston Public Hospital. So, this would greatly help in that treatment because what would happen [is] we [would] put on the defibrillator, we find out what rhythm they are at, we shock them, and we continue to shock them for at least three times until the rhythm reverts from what caused the cardiac arrest,” added Dr McIntosh.

In the meantime, District Governor for Rotary District 7020 William Aiken told the Sunday Observer that, based on scientific research, “When someone has a cardiac arrest, if they are offered CPR and you attach a defibrillator to them, their chances of survival increases by over 70 per cent.”

“I saw two videos, one where a nurse in Annotto Bay had come off duty, and while she was shopping she collapsed and nobody knew what to do, nobody offered her CPR, there was no defibrillator available. I also saw another video of a medical doctor who was playing squash and again, the same thing happened.

“So I thought that a good project, based on the fact that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death, [was] to ask our Rotatory club to increase public awareness about the risk factors of cardiovascular disease so that people are more aware; to train their members, and members of the community, in doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation; and, very importantly, to put defibrillators in public spaces where large number of people congregate,” added Aiken.