Police Officer Uses Portable Defibrillator To Save Life; First Save For IU Study
INDIANAPOLIS--The first "save" of a cardiac arrest victim by an Indiana police officer using a portable automated external defibrillator (AED) has been recorded according to researchers at the Krannert Institute of Cardiology at Indiana University School of Medicine. The researchers began a study last year known as PARADE (Police as Responder Automated Defibrillation Evaluation) to evaluate the effect of training and equipping police officers in designated counties of Indiana with AEDs. An AED automatically analyzes the heart rhythm, chooses the right amount of electricity to deliver and coaches the operator with audio and visual prompts.
On January 31, 1998, an off-duty City of Muncie police officer was driving in his car with his two young children when he went into cardiac arrest and hit another car. Daniel Hahn, an officer from the Delaware County Police Department, was driving nearby and was immediately dispatched to the scene. There, two nurses had come upon the accident and were giving CPR to the 41-year-old victim, Mark Vollmar. Hahn used an AED to resuscitate the officer, who had a previous history of heart disease. The estimated time from collapse to the first defibrillatory shock was less than three minutes. The victim's pulse was restored after two shocks. Emergency medical services (EMS) ambulance personnel were on the scene a few minutes later. The officer's condition then deteriorated, requiring the administration of additional shocks and medications by EMS personnel. The officer was admitted to the hospital and underwent surgery. He was released from the hospital on February 7, 1998.
The Delaware County Police Department was equipped with AEDs last fall through PARADE. This case represents the first time an AED was used by the Delaware County Police Department as well as the first time during the PARADE study that a victim resuscitated by a police officer was discharged from the hospital. In an earlier case, police officers in Cicero, Ind., in Hamilton County, successfully resuscitated an elderly woman who was admitted to the hospital, but died 10 days later in surgery.
The four counties currently enrolled in the PARADE study to date are Hamilton, Shelby, Delaware and Marshall counties. More than a dozen other counties have expressed interest in participating in the study.
Sudden cardiac arrest is the single leading cause of death in the U.S., striking about 1,000 Americans each day. Whether victims survive sudden death depends on how quickly they can be defibrillated. The shorter the time from collapse to defibrillation, the better the chances of survival. If defibrillation is delayed for more than 10 minutes, survival rates drop to virtually zero.
The rationale for the PARADE study is that police officers often can be on the scene more rapidly than traditional EMS responders. Preliminary data from the PARADE trial suggests that police officers arrive at the scene an average of four minutes quicker than EMS. It is believed that the addition of police AED capabilities may help improve the rate of survival from cardiac arrest in Indiana, which is close to the national average of less than five percent. In other parts of the country with similar programs, survival rates of 30 to 45 percent have been achieved. According to William Groh, MD, principal investigator of the PARADE study, the Delaware County case clearly demonstrates the importance of early defibrillation for victims of cardiac arrest. "If it were not for the prompt response of the Delaware County Police Department and the use of the AED, this patient would probably not be alive today," said Groh.
The PARADE trial is supported by the Asmund S. Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine, the Medtronic Foundation Heart/Rescue Program, Guidant Corporation, Laerdal Medical Corporation, Physio-Control Corporation, Heartstream and SurvivaLink Corporation. For more information about the PARADE study or how to participate, contact Mary Newman, research coordinator at 317-630-7145.
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