Just in time:
Senior lifeguard Alan Hui used an automated external defibrillator to save a swimmer’s life.
Just in time:
Senior lifeguard Alan Hui used an automated external defibrillator to save a swimmer’s life.
Prime location:
Automated external defibrillators are installed at highly patronised sport venues, in easily accessible and highly visible places.
Prime location:
Automated external defibrillators are installed at highly patronised sport venues, in easily accessible and highly visible places.
Life savers:
More than 1,300 Leisure & Cultural Services Department staff members have taken courses on operating the automated external defibrillators.
Life savers:
More than 1,300 Leisure & Cultural Services Department staff members have taken courses on operating the automated external defibrillators.
User-friendly:
Automated external defibrillators provide step-by-step voice instructions in Cantonese, so a rescuer can deliver immediate and effective help.
User-friendly:
Automated external defibrillators provide step-by-step voice instructions in Cantonese, so a rescuer can deliver immediate and effective help.
Every second counts:
Leisure & Cultural Services Department Chief Leisure Manager Alice Heung said the use of defibrillators to deliver electric shocks to patients within five minutes helps increase their survival rate by 50%.
Every second counts:
Leisure & Cultural Services Department Chief Leisure Manager Alice Heung said the use of defibrillators to deliver electric shocks to patients within five minutes helps increase their survival rate by 50%.
Handy lifesaving devices boost survival rate
April 21, 2013
“Ding! Ding! Ding!” An alarm echoed across Victoria Park’s swimming pool, indicating someone was in trouble. Lifeguard supervisor Alan Hui ran to help another lifeguard as he saved a woman from the bottom of the pool. When she was pulled from the water, she had no heartbeat and was not breathing.
Mr Hui immediately grabbed the automated external defibrillator nearby, placed its electrode pads on the swimmer’s chest and delivered two electric shocks to her heart. Before the ambulance arrived, the woman had resumed breathing and her heart was beating again. After treatment in hospital, she fully recovered, and wrote a thank you letter to Mr Hui and other lifeguards for saving her life.
Increasing survival odds
Mr Hui is happy to have saved a life, and appreciates the defibrillators’ efficacy.
“In the past, there were no automated external defibrillators installed in pool areas. We had to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation on our own, and the patients’ survival chance was lower. In this case, if the defibrillation had been delayed two more minutes, there would have been insufficient oxygen to the woman’s brain and her life would have been in danger,” he said.
The Leisure & Cultural Services Department began installing the lifesaving automated external defibrillators at its aquatic venues in 2011. They are now found at 43 swimming pools, five water sport centres, and 36 beaches, and had been used 34 times by the end of March.
Starting from this month, the department will install 254 more of these defibrillators at major parks, sport centres, tennis courts, and football pitches. The first batch have been set up at 80 venues, and remaining installations will be completed by the middle of this year.
Every second counts
Leisure & Cultural Services Department Chief Leisure Manager Alice Heung said the department puts sports venues at the top of its priority list for these units.
“We place them at highly patronised venues, such as football pitches, jogging tracks and major parks. According to analysis, the immediate use of defibrillators to deliver electric shocks to patients within five minutes helps to increase the survival rate by 50%,” Miss Heung said, adding the devices are easily accessible and noticeable.
More than 1,300 department staff members have completed training on operating the defibrillators. Qualified citizens can also use the devices in an emergency.
Clear instructions
“The AED is user-friendly. When you take it out of the box, it will have voice instructions in Cantonese, so that the rescuer can follow step-by-step instructions. For example, it will instruct people to clear the scene so that the electric shock can be delivered to the patient, and will instruct helpers to conduct CPR on the patient,” Miss Heung said, adding the device can be used as easily as a mobile phone.
The department will also install defibrillators at 56 major cultural venues such as public libraries, civic centres and museums by the middle of this year, and will consider expanding the programme to more venues.
