• 
• 
• State of Alaska
• Health & Social Services
• Public Notices
• myAlaska

Health & Social Services Search 

Today's Date:
Friday May 25 2012

Links

• Newsroom
• Press Releases
• Publications

Email Updates

To sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please enter your contact information below.

• Subscription Type
  Email SMS/Text Message
• Wireless Number
  1 (US)
• Email Address

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 14, 2003

Automated external defibrillator (AED) installed in Alaska Office Building in Juneau

33 DHSS staff in Juneau trained & ready to respond to emergency.

The first automated external defibrillator (AED) to be installed in the Alaska Office Building in Juneau was activated today by the Dept. of Health & Social Services. The AED is located on the Third Floor by the elevators and the Sky Bridge. "I think Valentine's Day is the right day to talk about fixing broken hearts," DHSS Commissioner Joel Gilbertson said. "Seriously though, heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Alaska, and the first leading cause in the Nation. I am proud to say that 33 people in our Department in Juneau are trained in CPR and able to operate the AED."

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a machine that analyzes the heart's rhythm and, if necessary, tells a trained operator to deliver a shock to a victim of sudden cardiac arrest. Unlike a heart attack -- where blood flow to the heart muscle is temporarily blocked -- cardiac arrest occurs when the heart's normal electrical rhythms become erratic, causing the heart to stop pumping blood effectively. The chance of surviving cardiac arrest is much greater with defibrillation: each minute that defibrillation is delayed reduces the chance of survival by about 10 percent, according to the American Red Cross. Your chances of surviving cardiac arrest are normally between 5 and 10 percent just using CPR. But with the AEDs and defibrillation, your chances of surviving cardiac arrest go up to about 87 percent.

DHSS' Central Safety Committee worked about a year on the project to install the AED, which was purchased by the Div. of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities. The AED project included working through a number of technical and legal issues to install the unit, identifying and training volunteers to respond to emergencies, developing policies and procedures, and establishing a web site so that all DHSS employees could access important information about the AED.

--30--

For more information, please contact

Sherry Hill, Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Communications
(907) 465-1611

Or

Ross Soboleff
Public Information Officer III
(907) 465-1611