OUR MEETING on JULY 07
 
Our program generated a lot of interest, and we had a slightly higher attendance than expected.
This included a visit from Darryl Brown – RC Manningham. Although Wendy had brought him along, he was delighted to meet up with a number of our members who were ‘born and raised’ in and around Stawell.
 
DEFIBRILLATOR TRAINING
 
Our speaker/ trainer this week was Liz Bailey. Liz is a paramedic, and has been one of many defib trainers from Ambulance Victoria.
 
Our club had used Government funding to purchase an AED or Automated External Defibrillator. It is mounted on the wall of our meeting room and is easily accessible to both ourselves and any one else who may need to use it in the event of a cardiac emergency.
 
AED’S are used to detect any unnatural heart rhythms present within a patient’s heart when they suffer from a sudden cardiac arrest.
NB:
  • If an AED detects that Ventricular Fibrillation or another form or irregular rhythm is present, it will send a shock to the patient to return the heart to its natural rhythm.
  • The defib will only send this shock if required—there won’t be an instance where a patient is unnecessarily shocked.
 
Liz did not have a mannikin on which she could demonstrate, so she used a video produced by ambulance Vic to demonstrate use.
I could not find that particular video but found this one – also from ambulance Victoria- to demonstrate CPR and AED use
 
 
I urge you to watch the video. It will refresh your memory on CPR in case you have not had a refresher course over the last couple of years.
 
A few useful takeaways from the presentation:
About CPR:
  • You no longer interrupt compressions with breathing
  • You try to get around 100 compressions per minute
 
About AED:
  1. Maintenance:
    1. The AED Batteries are good for up to 300 ‘shocks'
    2. The pads are single use only
    3. The distributor needs to service and replenish pads and batteries
  2. The AED tells you
    1. To remove the patients’ top
    2. Where to place the pads
    3. When to move away and press the shock button.
    4. When to commence compressions.