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Did you know...

• One in every four deaths in our nation is due to heart disease. One death every 34 seconds.
• Heart disease does not play favorites.
• Even more disturbing, nearly half of all adults in the U.S. have some form of heart disease. And someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds. Half of these are first heart attacks, and one in five is a silent attack, meaning the damage is done without you knowing.
• Elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and obesity are key risk factors for heart disease. Combined with Indiana's increasing rates of obesity and tobacco use, it significantly increases heart disease in our communities. In fact,
  • Indiana ranks 46^th in obesity
  • and 45^th in smoking and tobacco use
• For those in cardiac arrest, studies show that a patient's chance of survival is decreased by 10% for every minute that goes by without shock treatment.

AEDs and medical-grade Defibrillators are not the same…

• The job of both devices is to deliver an electric current, or shock, to revive an irregular heartbeat during resuscitation. AEDs are public access devices; you see them in businesses, churches, and even public areas in our medical center. Anyone without formal medical training can use them to assist in heart emergencies. AED machines can detect heart arrhythmias on their own or after a sudden cardiac arrest and automatically deliver the electric current to a patient when the device deems it necessary, telling the untrained user what to do through step-by-step instructions until medical personnel arrives.

• Medical-Grade Hospital defibrillators are made explicitly for emergencies where trained medical personnel are present. These machines are superior, with a broader range of options requiring the knowledge of qualified doctors, nurses, and technicians to read the outputs and determine how large of a shock to give the patient and when to administer the shock.