Debbie Phillips of Chesterton remembers all too well the day she got the one phone call every parent dreads. Her 16-year-old son’s school called her at work to say that her son, Joshua, was unconscious and not breathing, and paramedics had arrived and were taking him to the local hospital.

Debbie will tell her story at the American Heart Association’s Northwest Indiana’s Operation Heartbeat symposium “Conquering Sudden Cardiac Arrest.” The free symposium will be Monday, April 21 at Avalon Manor Banquet Center from 11:30 am.-1:30 p.m. The event is designed to educate local organizations about how lives could be saved through the placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in their facilities.

“Each year 250,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest - 95 percent die because they do not receive defibrillation in time,” said Debbie. “I go through each day wondering if defibrillation had been available before the paramedics arrived would Joshua have survived?”

For each minute that passes, an individual’s chance of survival decreases by 10 percent. According to the American Heart Association it is estimated that 40,000 more lives could be saved each year if AEDs were placed in public places and police cars.

During the Spring of 1999 Joshua was playing soccer and running track. He was a typical high school student and involved in a variety of sports throughout the year. Being active in high school athletics meant Joshua needed to have a current physical exam. The results of his physical indicated everything was fine, so Debbie never worried about her son’s heart stopping.

However, a few days before Joshua collapsed at track practice, he mentioned to his mom that his heart was racing real fast and it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

“I remember thinking that wasn’t normal, his heart shouldn’t do that,” said Debbie. “I asked if his heart had ever done that before and he said it was the first time. I told him if it happened again to let me know so we could have it looked at.”

Since Joshua’s death four years ago, Debbie has been actively working in communities in Northwest Indiana to help place AEDs in high traffic locations such as schools, corporations and in police cars. Cardiac arrest survival rates drop 7 to 10 percent per minute of delay until defibrillation, a process in which an electronic device gives an electric shock to the heart and helps re-estalish normal contraction rhythms in a heart that’s not beating properly. After 10 minutes it is unlikely a victim can be resuscitated.

Used when someone is in cardiac arrest, an AED is an easy-to-use electronic device that re-establishes normal rhythms to the heart by delivering electric shocks. The use of an AED is the only effective treatment for most sudden cardiac arrests, which result from ventricular fibrillation, a rapid, uncoordinated quivering of the heart’s lower chambers that prevents the heart from pumping blood effectively. Nationally, the American Heart Association estimates that cardiac arrest strikes about 1,000 adults a day.

Many states, including Indiana, have provided limited liability immunity for people who use AEDs. In some cases, Good Samaritan laws have been amended, new statutes passed or regulations modified to provide immunity.

The American Heart Association has set a goal of improving sudden cardiac arrest survival from its current 5 percent to 20 percent. The organization is working to help all communities implement effective PAD programs.

Posted 4/18/2003