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State of Hawaii Airports and Operation Stay'N Alive: The largest
public access defibrillation program in the nation.
Pictured above (left to right):
Captain Geoffrey Tavares, Mariko Kimura , Pam Foster RN, and Firefighter Joseph Lyau. All participated as
CPR/AED instructors for Operation Stay'N Alive.
HONOLULU - The State Department of Transportation-Airport Division has installed 100 Welch Allyn
AED-10 Defibrillators in public areas of all state-run airports as of December
2006. Sixty of the devices were installed at Honolulu International Airport, ten
(10) at each Kahului and Kona Airports, nine (9) at Hilo Airport, six (6) at
Lihue Airport, and one (1) at each of the airports in Kapalua, Lanai, Molokai, Kalaeloa, and
Dillingham.
The automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
have been installed in the Hawaii airports so the public or airport employees can
quickly access
them in the event of a cardiac emergency. To make the AEDs accessible to
bystanders each of the AEDs have been placed in well marked, alarmed cabinets
strategically located throughout the airports.
“We experience on average about six cardiac
arrests each year at Honolulu International Airport alone,” said James Ireland,
M.D., medical director for Honolulu International Airport’s Crash/Fire
Department and the airport’s defibrillator program, and an emergency room
physician at Hawaii Medical Center-East. “Survival rates can be improved as we
now have defibrillators located about 90 seconds apart in walking distance
through the airport’s public areas, which can be used to help in medical
emergencies.”
“A large part of the Hawaii airports
"Operation Stay'N Alive" includes educating DOT-Airport Division employees, who
volunteer for training, how to respond to a cardiac emergency, perform CPR, and
how to use the AEDs,” said Pamela Foster, RN, the Airport’s AED program
coordinator. “The goal is not to just place the AEDs in alarmed cabinets, but to
make sure everyone is comfortable responding to an event and using the AED when
needed.”
As of February 2007 nearly 1,200 airport
employees have been trained and certified in the AHA Heartsaver AED course that
combines the skills of CPR and how to use an AED. The American Heart Association CPR/AED
training is contracted through AED Institute of America, INC. who is proud to be
affiliated with the exceptional personnel of Hawaii's Crash/Fire/Rescue Unit, an AHA
certified Training Center.
“AEDs have evolved in their simplicity so that
now anyone can easily use them with very little instruction,” Ireland said. “The
machines prompt users with verbal messages on what to do.”
The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that sudden cardiac arrest is
responsible for about 250,000 out-of-hospital deaths annually in the United
States. AHA supports lay rescuer programs that provide early recognition, early
cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and early defibrillation within the first minutes
of a cardiac arrest. It has been proven that public access to
defibrillation programs with trained responders can increase survival of victims of sudden cardiac arrest by
seven times or more.
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