All Articles by Lindsey Barton Straus, JD

Sudden Cardiac Arrest and a heart attack have different symptoms, causes, and treatment.

There are many AED products on the market. The "best" AED is the one that is closest in the event of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). No AED has been proven to be scientifically superior to the others and, because of the nature of the product, it is unlikely that there will ever be a Consumer Reports-type rating of these medical devices.

There are ten things a community should know to prevent sudden cardiac death, which kills an estimated 350,000 people in the United States each year, more than all forms of cancer.

Medical directors of AED programs perform a variety of important functions: picking the right AED to purchase, writing the prescription (one is needed for most AEDs), supervising training, developing the rescue protocol,

AED programs need "champions" to be successful: a parent that has lost a child to sudden cardiac arrest, an employee with a congenital heart. condition, a volunteer fire fighter or EMT who knows first-hand that AEDs save lives, or someone who is just simply passionate about the need for an AED program. A champion is the person a committee needs to convince everyone that they really should get on board. She is the one who keeps on pushing when the odds seem to be stacked against the AED program ever happening.

Good Samaritan laws help protect rescuers voluntarily helping a victim in distress from being successfully sued in tort (i.e. for wrongdoing). They are designed to encourage people to help a stranger who needs assistance by reducing or eliminating the fear that, if they do so, they will suffer possible legal repercussions in the event that they inadvertently make a mistake in treating the victim. The laws were primarily developed for first aid situations and differ from state to state, but most protect lay users of AEDs in providing emergency medical assistance.

When it comes to cardiac safety in sports, there are a variety of terms parents should know.

A primary goal of nearly every committee setting up and implementing an AED program is, obviously, to obtain the funding necessary to pay the estimated costs of your AED program. The simplest approach to funding - direct funding by your municipality, a government agency, or by the state (e.g., state department of public health, school department budget), or through a government grant - may be all that is needed, particularly if you are seeking to start a Community Access Defibrillation Program (CAD) serving your entire community, or a significant segment, such as the public schools.

Starting an AED program, whether it be for a youth sports program, school, business or organization, doesn't take place in a vacuum. It requires a commitment and input from experts, widespread public support, and a committee comprised of people willing to work hard to make it a reality. In order to gain broad-based community support, the committee should be comprised of "movers and shakers" in the community, bringing to the committee different talents and perspectives, and representing different constituencies within your community.