Manager Jan Albers immediately set off on Monday to check all AEDs in Schaijk. Civilian aid workers could not use an AED to resuscitate a woman on Thursday evening because the battery had disappeared from the defibrillator. Stolen according to Jan. The woman who had to be resuscitated has died. According to Albers, she would not have survived even with a working AED.
“It is selfish and incomprehensible, especially because you cannot charge the battery and it is therefore of no use,” says Jan at the defibrillator that could not be used on Thursday. “I think someone with a similar device in the region has removed the battery from this device. Probably because the battery of that device was broken,” says Jan. AEDs are portable devices and they are posted in public places. With the device, the heart rhythm can be restored by giving an electric shock.
You hope you never experience it, but according to the Red Cross, three hundred people a week suffer cardiac arrest in the Netherlands. This can happen while running, at work, in the cinema or just at home on the couch. In a cardiac arrest, every second counts, so Jan checks all AEDs in his municipality after last Thursday’s incident. “There are seven in Schaijk,” he says. When Jan tests the device at the library next to the front door, you can immediately see that the battery is still present. A green light flashes every six seconds.
The manufacturer of the AEDs prescribes checking the devices twice a year, but Jan and his colleagues in Schaijk even check four times a year. He then also tests whether they really do. When he opens the lid of the AED, you immediately hear a voice telling the user exactly what to do. “Actually, anyone can save a life with this device,” says Jan. The AED case also contains scissors and other items that may be needed to assist the patient. The defibrillator at the library does exactly what it should do, so the battery is fine. All other devices in Schaijk are checked by Jan in the same way. The faster you use an AED in a cardiac arrest, the greater the chance of survival. That is why it is vital that there is an AED in every neighborhood and that it actually works.