Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance

Lesson 5
AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Activity Instructions:

Part I

Read the article on automated external defibrillator (AED) provided by the American
Heart Association

Bystander use of defibrillators can dramatically boost survival of cardiac arrest patients

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS

A person who suffers a cardiac arrest in public has more than twice the chance of surviving if a
bystander steps in to restart the heart with an automated external defibrillator before an emergency
crew arrives at the scene, a new study has found.

Heidi Stewart is living proof of that finding.

Stewart was an 18-year-old competitive swimmer and high school senior when she collapsed from a
cardiac arrest on Feb. 12, 2013. Feeling unusually lethargic, she walked into her school’s administrative
office to seek help – and immediately passed out.

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
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AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
An office worker dialed 911 and called for the school nurse, who administered CPR and then used the
school’s automated external defibrillator, or AED. Stewart’s heart was shocked three times over 10
minutes before emergency responders reached the school grounds.

“Without the AED, I would not be here today,” said Stewart, who was later diagnosed with a congenital
heart defect. Now 23, she advocates for widespread distribution of the portable devices. “CPR alone
would not have kept [me] alive.”

In a new study published Monday in Circulation, researchers examined data involving people who had
cardiac arrests in nine major North American cities – six in the United States and three in Canada.

The study found that bystanders who used AEDs on cardiac arrest patients can significantly boost
survival rates, particularly in regions where patients might have long waits before being reached by
paramedics.

“In cities like New York, where the traffic is horrendous, and in some particularly rural areas, bystander
defibrillation is going to make a major difference,” said cardiologist Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, the study’s
senior author and a Johns Hopkins University professor.

“The longer the delay by EMS, the survival rate falls – and the greater the difference between a
bystander shocking the patient and an EMS shocking the patient.”

A cardiac arrest usually occurs when an electrical disturbance disrupts the heart so much that it stops.
An AED can shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.

In the new study, whose lead author was Johns Hopkins University medical student Ross Pollack,
researchers looked at 49,555 people treated for cardiac arrest by an emergency medical services team
between 2011 and 2015. The study analyzed a portion of those patients – the ones whose cardiac
arrests happened in public outside of a hospital, were witnessed by bystanders, and were “shockable,”
meaning the heart still had enough activity to respond to a defibrillator shock.

Researchers found that 66.5 percent survived with the help of a bystander-administered AED, versus 43
percent who survived after waiting for an emergency medical crew to deliver a shock to their hearts.
Similarly, cardiac arrest patients were more likely to return to their normal neurologic levels when
assisted by bystanders who used AEDs instead of waiting for emergency technicians.

Dr. Raina Merchant, an emergency medicine doctor and associate professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, was pleased to find the study reflected similar benefits and results of AED use, regardless
of what part of the country or continent the devices were administered. The report also backs up
previous studies showing “the devices can be used by anyone,” she said.

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
Lesson 5
AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Yet, she said the study also demonstrated that not enough people are using defibrillators. Only about
one in five cardiac arrest patients in the study received an AED shock from a bystander. It’s uncertain
whether an AED was available in every case included in the study, and researchers did not consider the
impact of calling 911 and starting immediate CPR.

“We know that they save lives, we know when they’re used they can make a big difference for people
who are in a shockable rhythm, so now our charge is really – how do we make sure that people know
where the devices are, and that they feel comfortable taking them off the wall or out of drawers and
start using them?” said Merchant, who was not involved in the study. “The call to action here is that we
have good science to show they work. Let’s get more people using them.”

An estimated 3,459 additional lives would be saved each year in the United States if every person who
had a bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest in public received AED shocks from bystanders, according to
the study.

The report noted an increase in availability of AEDs in public spaces over the years. Looking at the most
recent data available, researchers cited an analysis by the Food and Drug Administration that found AED
sales in the United States had increased tenfold from 1996-2006 “and this trend may have continued
since.”

Heidi Stewart was 18 when she had a cardiac arrest at her high school. The school’s public access
AED helped save her life. (Photo by American Heart Association)

Stewart advocates for getting AEDs in more public spaces as well as making people comfortable
with the idea of using them. She said the only reason her high school had a defibrillator five years
ago when she suffered her cardiac arrest was because it had been donated by a local family struck
by tragedy and aware of the device’s benefits.

“I know a lot of people view an AED as something scary, or just feel it’s taboo to make an attempt to
save a life if you’re not a medical expert,” Stewart said. “But it’s so easy to operate an AED. The
thing talks to you. It has pictures showing you where to put the pads. It’s really so simple.

“It begins with one person, one bystander. You need to just try. I’m alive because someone decided
to try.”

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
Lesson 5
AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Part II
AED Questions
Student Directions: Answer the following questions. Note that some of the answers may
need to be researched and will not be found in the article. Be sure to use credible sources
such as the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, Center for Disease Control.

 What is an automated external defibrillator (AED)?

 What is it used for?

 How does it work?

 Take some time over the next two days to:

- Identify how many AEDs are located in your school

 Record the # of AEDs here ___________________________

- Identify exactly where the AEDs in your school are located

 Record the specific location of the AEDs here

_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

- Look at the AED (it is likely locked in its case so don’t disturb it) and see if
you look through the glass and see when the last time the AED was
inspected. If possible, record the date.
 ___________________________________________________

- If the AED is out of compliance with its inspection, notify your health and
physical education teacher along with the athletic director of the school.
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AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project

- Conduct research within your school to identify staff members that have
been trained to administer the AED. List their names, when they were
trained and by whom (what organization or person). Did they have to be
certified to use the AED?
- Ask the teacher if all of the staff in the school have been informed where
the AEDs are located?

Name of Staff
Member When were By whom? Did they have Have they had to
they trained? to be certified use an AED in an
to use an emergency
AED? before? If yes, ask
them to tell you
the story.

 As you are out and about over the course of the next two days, observe at least
two other places to see if AEDs are present (example: church, work, retail stores,
grocery store, gas station, etc.)
- Record your findings here _______________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
Lesson 5
AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Part III
CPR Questions
Student Directions: Answer the following questions by visiting the American Heart
Association website. https://cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cardiac-arrest-vs-heart-
attack

Name What is it? What What to do? What is the What other
happens? link between information
cardiac arrest should we
and heart know?
attack?

Cardiac Arrest

Heart Attack

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
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AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Student Directions: Select a type of CPR and provide the steps taken to administer it to
the chosen population of your choice (adult, hands-only, child/baby, pet). American Red
Cross website. https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/performing-cpr

Type of CPR: ____________________________________________

List the CPR Steps:

How does administering an AED or CPR affect the brain? Why is it

important?

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 Unit 2: Promoting Learning through Brain Maintenance
Lesson 5
AED, CPR, Organ Donation Mini-Project
Part IV
Organ Donation
Student Directions: Summarize the procedures for organ donation, local and state
resources and benefits by using this website. https://www.donatelifenc.org/ If you are
not able to find all of the information on this site, search for other sites that are credible.

List the Procedures for List local and state List the benefits described
Organ Donation in North resources related to organ for organ donation
Carolina donation on North
Carolina

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