Defibs at clubs.

Shouldn't the priority be to get the casualty back to base to give access to ambulance etc and to have the support of others ( potentially more experienced) ? Even if the trip back was just supported by CPR. Surely removing kit etc is going to difficult afloat

Thanks guys,

Looking at the lake I use, normally 2 rescue boats, far end of the lake is about 1mile at the far end.
If we reckon that 1 rescue boat per 1/2 of the lake, then if it takes a couple of minutes to reach a casualty ( say 30 seconds to realise it's a casualty, not just a capsize; 45 seconds to reach casualty, then 20 seconds to recover the unresponsive body - with 2 people), then do the assessment, is the defib actually going to help?

To be honest, I do wonder if the main use for a club defib is for people at the club, rather than the sailing members...

Colin

Granted the page I linked to is by a Defib manufacturer but they say that even one minute delay can affect the outcome and the best option for the casualty is for the defibrillator to be deployed at the earliest opportunity. I know little about it but surely a beating heart has to be better than CPR? 

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 24 Feb 20 at 11:19am

Here's a piece from an American study on the "cost effectiveness" of AEDs (automatic external defibs) in public places. The study has no relevance to sailing clubs in UK, just posted out of interest . A UK club might have difficulty explaining to a bereaved spouse that  they couldn't save their nearest and dearest because their life wasn't worth it.

"OBJECTIVE

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends an automated external defibrillator (AED) be considered for a specific location if there is at least a 20% annual probability the device will be used. We sought to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the AHA recommendation and of AED deployment in selected public locations with known cardiac arrest rates.

RESULTS

Under the base-case assumption that a deployed AED will be used on 1 cardiac arrest every 5 years (20% annual probability of AED use), the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained is $30,000 for AED deployment compared with EMS-D care. AED deployment costs less than $50,000 per QALY gained provided that the annual probability of AED use is 12% or greater. Monte Carlo simulation conducted while holding the annual probability of AED use at 20% demonstrated that 87% of the trials had a cost-effectiveness ratio of less than $50,000 per QALY."


As I said rather these mercenary figures are not relevant to a UK sailing club but it does raise the question of "how small does a probability have to be before we stop worrying much about it?

Edited by Sussex Lad - 24 Feb 20 at 12:14pm