When a person goes into cardiac arrest, the regular pumping rhythm of their heart stops and the muscle begins to quivers sporadically. Consequently blood stops being pumped around the body, starving the brain and other organs of oxygen. The longer the body is deprived, the more damage is done. And usually, after about 10 or 15 minutes, there is little or no chance of recovery. That's where timely defibrillation can make the difference, says Dr. Juris Hedges, the head of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Studies show that only an average of five percent of heart attack sufferers recover completely.
But those odds jump to 45 percent if a defibrillator is used within the first four minutes. Doctor Hedges says the quicker the machines are used, the better. And there, up to 60 percent of patients who have had a witness cardiac arrest have survived. The Fire Bureau is working with Oregon Health Sciences University to pick places like malls, golf courses, factories and other public buildings to put the defibrillators. Adams says they're doing two different studies.