An Automated External Defibrillator or AED machine on a worksite can help save lives. In fact, having this equipment onsite at all times in factories, shopping centres, schools, and most public places for that matter is actually compulsory.
According to the ANZCOR Guideline 7 – Automated External Defibrillation in Basic Life Support, it has been proved and stated that:
“The importance of defibrillation has been well established as part of overall resuscitation, along with effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) must only be used for persons who are unresponsive and not breathing normally.
With cardiac arrest, time to defibrillation is a key factor that influences a person’s chance of survival. A defibrillator should be applied to the person who is unresponsive and not breathing normally as soon as it becomes available so that a shock can be delivered if necessary.”
(Retrieved from ResponseForLife.org)
There are many reasons why AED machines onsite should be a critical part of your First Aid plan. As a company, Checkpoint Products prides itself in problem-solving and providing solutions to minimise risk; whether it’s a fire, first aid or intruder risk, we have a solution, so when you get in touch with us for your safety needs, we love taking the time to help design and provide the perfect solution for your site.
One of our main goals was to come up with a solution to minimise the time between a first aid emergency or accident and the response, as we understand how critical this is to minimise the damage to personnel, assets and property.
This is where our Cygnus wireless nurse call system is a game-changer. This system is comprised of the main control panel (base station) and call points for fire, first aid or general emergencies.
AED machines on site
These call points can be positioned throughout a site (we custom design each layout and configuration for each different site need) to ensure that all employees – regardless of where they are on your site – will have access in the event of an emergency.
Let’s look at two hypothetical worksite scenarios and the outcomes with and without a Cygnus nurse call system to support the rapid application of an AED in the shortest time possible. This is a large worksite, with a lot of buildings and obstructions – this means many workers are out of sight and a fair distance from each other.
Scenario 1
This company likes to cut corners on safety and just hope for the best. No nurse call system or first responder trolleys are used onsite; however, they do have an AED machine on site in the site office, which is located over a kilometre from the furthest worker.
Let’s imagine a scenario where a worker at the farthest end of the worksite is laying pipes on the other side of a wall (no one can see or hear him over the loud busy construction site noise and hustle). He gets hurt badly by a piece of heavy pipe crushing his chest, which consequently sends him into cardiac arrest. A few minutes later, one of the other workers realises that he is lying on the floor and not breathing properly.
He runs over and tries to yell for someone’s attention but as it is a large, loud, busy site no one hears him and he has no way of sounding an alert to get help quickly. So he has to run over 1km back to the site shed to get the defib and run the 1km back to the worker, who is now in severe danger of long-lasting injury to his brain and body or even more fatal consequences. By the time he gets back, it’s almost too late but all efforts are made, emergency numbers are called and the worker is rushed to hospital. Unfortunately, he will forever suffer long term damage to his brain and body because the time between the accident and a defib (AED) being administered was far too long.
Scenario 2
This company prides itself on putting safety first. They have first responder trolleys positioned all over the site with Cygnus call points on each trolley. A similar scenario plays out where the worker at the farthest end of the worksite, is laying pipes on the other side of a wall (no one can see or hear him over the loud busy construction site noise and hustle). He gets hurt badly by a piece of heavy pipe crushing his chest, which consequently sends him into cardiac arrest. A few minutes later, one of the other workers realises that he is lying on the floor and not breathing properly.
He knows he must immediately find the closest first aid call point and alert the safety personnel and site that there is an urgent first aid emergency. Because they have radio and SMS modules programmed into their system, all the site managers and first aiders receive a text message that informs them there has been a medical emergency in the area from where the call point was activated. The first responder radios that the worker injured is not breathing properly so he states that they need a portable defibrillator as quick as possible, which arrives very rapidly and is applied to the patient straight away. An ambulance is called and the worker is taken to the hospital, and then released with no permanent damage because of the rapid response between the accident and application of the AED machine on site.
In conclusion, we can see the vital importance of having thorough first aid response plans including first aid kits, trauma kits, automatic defibrillators (AED machines), first aid call points, first responder trolleys or safety hubs etc., onsite and close at hand so that incidents can not only be avoided but responded to in the fastest, most appropriate method to minimise risk and damage to both life and property.
