Noble Hospital Donates AED Devices to St. Mary’s

WESTFIELD — Noble Hospital has donated two automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to St. Mary’s School in Westfield. The donation is part of Noble’s campaign to promote CPR/AED awareness in the community.

AEDs are small, portable devices used to restart the heart after cardiac arrest; they are designed to be simple and easy to use by average people with only minimal training. When used in conjunction with CPR, AEDs can give a victim time to get to the hospital, but in order for an AED to be effective, treatment must be administered immediately. Since cardiac arrest can strike anywhere and at any time, Noble leaders say, it is important that the entire community has access to this life-saving technology and is trained in its use.

In the coming months, Noble Hospital will be expanding its efforts to promote CPR/AED awareness through a collaboration with the KEVS Foundation, a local not-for-profit dedicated to educating and preventing sudden cardiac arrest in children and young adults. The AED donation represents the first of many programs designed to make Westfield a safer place to live.

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Nearly 400,000 Americans suffer a heart attack outside of a hospital every year, and almost 90{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} die. CPR, along with the use of an AED, can increase the chance of survival significantly. AEDs have been shown to be effective when used on victims of cardiac arrest as long as they are administered within the first few minutes after the arrest begins, and are typically more effective when combined with CPR. The main issues surrounding cardiac arrest, Noble leaders say, is access to an AED, public education about the use of AEDs, and training of individuals in CPR.