FTV Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) Training

The cadets met together to review Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) and common CPR skills. The ship’s medical team, Dr. Jeff Cukor, N.P Kirk Spellman, and Paramedic Jonathan Hall instructed the meeting. An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable device that checks the heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm. AEDs are used to treat sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). SCA is a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When this happens, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs.

There are 6 defibrillators on board the T.S Kennedy. The cadets practiced the correct way of putting on the AED pads to a person’s chest and running through the steps.

 

Also, they practiced several ways to give a clean airway to unconscious and conscious victims. They used an AMBU bag with a mask as well as some other sophisticated devices to assist in breathing methods. The Lifeline Ambulance Company lent MMA their dummy to practice CPR. The members of the MMA-EMS program back on campus meet every Thursday night to refresh their emergency response skills as well as other EMT topics.

Watch this video to learn more

It's great to invent —to be celebrated as a genius and, if you're lucky, make your fortune! But it's even better when the thing you invent saves lives. Professor Frank Pantridge (1916–2004), a doctor from Northern Ireland, was a life-saving inventor. In the 1960s, he realized that many people were dying unnecessarily because they typically experienced cardiac arrest at home, at work, or in some other public place. By the time they'd been taken to a hospital where there was a defibrillator to kick-start their heart, it was already too late to save them. To solve this problem, Pantridge developed the first "portable," battery-powered defibrillator in 1965. Portable was something of a misnomer since it used huge lead-acid car batteries and weighed about as much as a person (70kg or 154 lb)! Even so, it could be carried around in ambulances, which gave a few valuable extra minutes to save people. Another of Pantridge's important insights was to realize that anyone could use a defibrillator with only very basic instruction; that eventually led to the development of the small, easy-to-use, automated defibrillators (weighing just a couple of kilograms) that are now installed in their millions in public places around the world. Frank Pantridge believed defibrillators should be as commonplace as fire extinguishers, since human life is far more important than property. His vision and determination saved—and continues to save—countless lives.

Who designed the Ambu bag? Dr. Holger Hesse , a Danish engineer in collaboration with Professor Henning Ruben, an anesthesiologist invented ambu bag in 1953. Their main aim was to increase the survival rate of the patients in medical emergencies. The term "ambu" has been derived from the word "ambulance", and and the reference to "bagging" was coined by rescue workers. Hesse and Ruben named the company "Ambu," and it is still in operation.

Try this interactive to learn the ins and outs of the heart.

Be an engineer and sketch out your ideas for future technology in cardiac emergencies.

Explore the working of the heart by making comparisons with the actions of a pump.

Learn about how valves operate and the engineering enhancements that have improved mechanical heart valve design over time.