Emergency calls for volunteers to come and help in the event of a cardiac arrest are becoming increasingly successful in Brabant. Last year, a volunteer showed up to operate an AED on almost nine out of ten calls. That was still seven in ten in 2019. However, there are not enough volunteers in all municipalities to help with an emergency call. There are shortages, especially in border municipalities.
This is evident from figures from HartslagNu, the organization that encourages the installation and use of AEDs. Spokesman Aart Bosmans says that it is not difficult to become a volunteer. “It just takes your time, four hours to be precise. It explains how the device works and what different situations you can expect.”
Turnout increased
AED stands for Automatic External Defibrillator. This is a portable device that can restore the heart rhythm with an electric shock in the event of cardiac arrest. The sooner you use an AED, the greater the chance that someone will survive. “We roughly apply the rule that for every minute of cardiac arrest, the chance of survival decreases by 10 percent,” Bosmans explains. “That means that someone cannot be saved after 10 minutes.”
A defibrillator is preferably operated by civilian emergency responders who can perform CPR and have some experience with such a device. They are registered with HartslagNu and can be called up as volunteers. “Because of those crucial first minutes, it is important that many volunteers live near an AED,” Bosmans emphasizes again.
Concerns about Baarle-Nassau
Volunteers showed up for all AED calls in nine municipalities in 2022. Heeze-Leende is striking. In 2019, a volunteer showed up for less than half of the calls, but last year this happened for all calls.
Turnout is lowest in Baarle-Nassau. There, in 2019 and 2022, a volunteer only showed up for just over half of the calls. In Helmond, Bergeijk and Heusden, volunteers reported for eight out of ten calls.
More volunteers needed
To ensure that more volunteers show up to an AED call, more volunteers are needed:
- In the event of an AED call, a hundred volunteers are called up in cities within a radius of 500 meters around the victim. More people live there, but they also fail more often, which means you need a larger reserve.
- In rural areas, sixty volunteers are called within two kilometers. Because fewer people live per square kilometer, you automatically get fewer volunteers. But they know each other better and the involvement is greater. As a result, they are more likely to respond to a report.
That standard of sixty volunteers per AED is not achieved in several municipalities. For example, in Woensdrecht and Baarle Nassau there are too few volunteers for more than half of the AEDs. Things are going slightly better in Moerdijk, Alphen-Chaam and Bergeijk. There are more than sixty volunteers for approximately half of the AEDs.
The map below shows how many AEDs and volunteers there are in your municipality and what the attendance is. You can also open the map through this link.