Legal Affairs: Heart Smart- Proactive firm provides defibrillator, CPR training

By Christine L. Mobley Legal News It was hearing of an averted tragedy that prompted a local law firm recently to acquire the necessary tools and education that could one day save a life. On January 9, John Bruder, a relatively healthy 52-year-old man was playing hockey at Suburban Ice Rink in Farmington Hills when he shockingly dropped to the ice. Bruder had gone into "sudden cardiac death." Bruder survived due to the rapid response of his fellow hockey players, including a physician friend, who immediately initiated CPR, and ultimately administered defibrillation with the AED -- or automated external defibrillator -- the rink had on site. Bruder's sister-in-law, Mary Ann Dunham, who is the office administrator at Bush, Seyferth & Paige, relayed the story of his frightening brush with death to the law firm's managing partner Cheryl Bush. Bush recalls how she felt upon hearing the story. "My first reaction was horror," Bush said. "Then there was guilt because I had asked someone two years ago at the firm to take charge of getting a defibrillator but we didn't follow through. I felt guilty that we had been exposed for that long." In a little more than a month's time, BSP had an AED and was being trained on how to use the defibrillator and on how to administer CPR. The training was parlayed into the first BSP Be Heart Smart and took place last month at the firm's offices in Troy. Coinciding with National Heart Month, firm employees wore red to the training and made donations to the American Heart Association. Tim O'Connor of Heartbeat LLC provided the CPR/AED training for the firm, which was included in the AED purchase price. He will also come back to BSP to provide First Aid in the Workplace training "I like it when companies are proactive versus reactive," O'Connor said. "You didn't wait for something to happen. I hope you never have to use this. I hope that it never gets to that point, but if it does then you have an instrument in order to save someone." Statistically, he said, a first responder has only 3 to 5 minutes to save someone's life once they have gone into cardiac arrest. Continuous Chest Compression CPR, or CPR minus the mouth-to-mouth ventilation, was the focus of the training. Continuous Chest Compression CPR has been shown to be more effective than traditional CPR. At the conclusion of the CPR training, BSP employees knew how to: * List the major risk factors of heart disease and discuss prudent heart living. * State the warning signs of a heart attack. * Explain how to activate the EMS system. * Demonstrate the following skills on a mannequin: Recovery position, rescue breathing, one-rescuer CPR, and foreign-body airway obstruction management for the adult victim. BSP employees were also taught when to properly use an automatic external defibrillator when a person is in cardiac arrest. Bush highly recommends other firms/businesses get on board with having a defibrillator on site. "They will be devastated if something awful happens and they're not prepared and equipped to deal with it. I cannot imagine how I would live the rest of my life if someone here were to have a cardiac incident and we did not have what we needed to take care of them." As for the expense? "It's not even a consideration, especially when I'm one of the oldest people here in the firm," she laughed. "I'm the most likely recipient. Why do you think I made it mandatory? "I have great people working with me here and I owe it to them to do what I can to make this as safe a workplace as I possibly can," she said. To learn more about getting an AED or CPR training, visit http://heartbeatllc.com or http://american.redcross.org. Published: Tue, Mar 22, 2011