Posted on 04/20/2012 10:57:26 AM PDT by grundle
Metro is inspecting all of its defibrillators after one failed to work Monday when a 51-year-old rider suffered a fatal heart attack on the Yellow Line.
The agency announced the news after The Washington Examiner started asking questions about the broken automated external defibrillator Thursday morning.
Metro now says it plans to inspect all the defibrillators in its stations within 24 hours after determining the one at the Pentagon station had a dead battery.
Metro has 46 defibrillators, meaning not every one of the 86 stations has one. The agency said Thursday it plans to add units at all remaining stations and replace any outdated models by April 30.
Rider Zane Reynolds told The Examiner the defibrillator at the Pentagon station might not have saved the man's life but it should have been working. He was among the riders who helped the fallen man, who police records identify as Eugene McCrea.
"It was not working," Reynolds said. "The battery was totally dead."
Reynolds said he was riding the Yellow Line train around 2:45 p.m. from L'Enfant Plaza when he saw a commotion at the end of his car as the train crossed the river on the way to the Pentagon station. Someone asked for anyone who knew CPR, and he jumped in to help.
Another rider alerted the train operator on the intercom that a man needed help, he said, and the operator acknowledged them. Several minutes passed as the train continued, he said, giving the agency time to get help.
"There should have been a Metro employee on the platform with the defibrillator ready," Reynolds said.
Instead, he said, Metro employees were not organized. Another rider waiting at the platform who happened to be a registered nurse came in and took over giving CPR.
The riders asked for a defibrillator. A Metro employee told them there was one at the station entrance. But the station manager was not moving quickly, Reynolds said, so he ran to get it as the nurse continued CPR. However, it didn't work once they tried it.
Metro said it took Arlington medics five minutes to arrive, but Reynolds said the officials had to grapple with the logistics of getting their gurney down the elevator to the train. The medics then used their own device to try to jump-start McCrea's heart.
At 3:17 p.m., McCrea was transported to Virginia Hospital Center, according to a Pentagon Force Protection Agency police report, where he was soon pronounced dead.
"While station managers have been trained to inspect defibrillators, procedures for conducting inspections and maintenance are being strengthened to include required signed daily inspection reports to prevent a recurrence," Metro said.
Defibrillators actually stop the heart and (hopefully!) allow it to restart on its own.
But anyway, if you're going to keep AEDs around, at least have a program in place to check them periodically. When they're available, they can definitely make a difference sometimes.
We have 3 AED’s in our school and there is an indicator if the battery is at full power or not....this done at the first of every month and our findings are recorded.....it is a fairly easy thing to do but then it is part of my job and unions do not have to be involved.....
Don’t tell me. The 48 defibrillators were sold by a Democrat company run by one of Obama’s pals, but they were a bit slow buying replacement batteries, because there just wasn’t all that much money in it.
mmmmmmm government regulation.
policy to inspect.....good practice, can be avoided or pencil-whipped
policy to replace.....good practice, if applied, can be avoided or pencil-whipped
policy to force compliance, like an insurance inspector threatening to drop all coverage if policies not adhered to....good practice
Sort of like blowout preventors on an off-shore oil well (too deep to be practical in the first place) and a waiver/promise to replace the batteries. Add to this an old government regulation that requires a pittance in restitution (vice a real insurance policy) in case of catastrophic failure.
An insurance inspector on site would pull coverage from the site if standards were not being met beats a pencil-whip-able set of regulations any day.
Looks like a job for constantly connected smart chargers and better quality batteries.
No medics available at the Pentagon? Well, there was that recent article about the Metro employees.
I don’t see how defibs provided on a public transportation system equate to government run healthcare.
Too bad there was no McGyver type around. “OK everyone, give me your cell phone batteries...”
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