The City of Waukesha, Wisconsin has deployed 20 Outdoor Public Access to Defibrillation (OPAD) devices in local parks and schools.
Over 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals each year but less than 10% survive neurologically intact. When bystanders are empowered to act using CPR and public access defibrillation, the outcomes become much more favorable.
Through Waukesha’s use of PulsePoint and OPAD units, residents now have multiple tools to help them act in a cardiac arrest emergency.
PulsePoint provides crowd-sourcing for CPR and defibrillation when a cardiac arrest is reported to 911. The dispatch center will automatically notify PulsePoint users (those who have downloaded the free app) who are nearby so that they are able to start CPR and provide defibrillation if a device is nearby. On average, PulsePoint users are able to start providing lifesaving care two minutes before emergency personnel arrive on scene.
The OPAD units by Waukesha are AED TEAM’s CE-TEK 4000 Outdoor AED Enclosures. These are heated and weather rated cabinets which use a code lock to keep AED units secure. When a nearby cardiac arrest is reported, the 911 dispatcher provides the caller with the nearby AED location and instructions for retrieval.
Communities around Waukesha are also making public access to defibrillation more available. An Eagle Scout project in and a baseball association in Merrill have already started deploying this equipment.
Read more about this project as reported by WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.
