Thanks to Sen. John Valentine's bill that passed unanimously in the Legislature, cardiac emergencies in Utah may be responded to like this:
"911 emergency response."
"My friend is having a heart attack."
"Sir, there is an automatic external defibrillator around the corner from you on the wall between the men's and women's bathrooms. You can use that device to get your friend's heart started again."
The AED, a laptop-size device designed to "jump start" a stopped heart, guides non-medical rescuers through the process with voice prompts.
By the time paramedics arrive, the heart attack victim may already be alert.
This is what the American Heart Association, Utah emergency responders and Valentine, R-Orem, are fighting for. They held a news media briefing Thursday to announce the database is ready to go online.
According to the heart association, about 220,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. That's about 600 each day, or 25 each hour.
In Utah, 2,170 people died from heart attacks between 1998 and 2000, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Carol Groustra, from the Utah Department of Public Safety, said AEDs can be indispensable when treating heart attacks.
"Shock is the only effective treatment," she said. "Time is of the essence in these cases."
SB95 set aside $5,600 to create a statewide database to collect and share information about the location of commercially owned AEDs.
It is unknown how many defibrillators are in the state, who owns them and where they are.
Registration is available for AED manufactures and vendors, owners and dispatchers. Phone registration is also available by calling 1-801-538-6435. The database is about to go online at health.utah.gov/ems.
Don Wood, program director for the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, said the database can accommodate locations that have more than one AED, like police forces, hotels and golf courses.
The one problem right now, he said, is that the bill doesn't make a provision for owners to update data on their AEDs.
Jerry Johnston, a Deseret Morning News editorial writer and columnist, knows how valuable it can be to know where the nearest AED is located.
In 2000, while returning from Bolivia on assignment for the News, Johnston had a heart attack in the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. He was revived and saved by a woman who used an AED that belonged to an American Airlines airplane.
"You're the luckiest man alive," paramedics told him.
The heart attack and ensuing triple-bypass surgery knocked Johnston out of commission for more than a month, but he's glad to be alive.
Scott Freitag, public information officer for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, said firefighters know the value of AEDs.
"We know AEDs save lives," he said. "It's nice to roll up on the scene and see that the defibrillator was activated already."
According to a Jan. 26 New York Times story, New York and Pennsylvania are the only states to stipulate all schools must have AEDs on site and someone trained to use them.
New York purchased its defibrillators from ZOLL, which sells AEDs ranging in price from $1,895 to $3,800.
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com