Defibrillators becoming office standard
By James Gonser
Urban Honolulu Writer
Honolulu office buildings are buying automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, portable devices that can save the life of a cardiac-arrest victim.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Pacific Guardian Center last month spent more than $30,000 to buy and install six defibrillators for its three Bishop Street buildings. It has trained security guards, maintenance workers and even tenants to use the lifesaving devices.
Automatic external defibrillators are becoming more popular in Honolulu as office buildings begin acquiring the portable devices in hopes of helping to save the lives of cardiac-arrest victims. The device costs about $3,000.
Bank of Hawaii has installed the devices in its larger workplaces, including the Financial Plaza of the Pacific downtown. First Hawaiian Bank has two in its tower across the street.
"It's a fairly new trend starting because the response time in densely populated areas, (such as) downtown buildings and high-rises, is longer because you have to get up the stairs, find the office and get to the people who have collapsed," said Karen Seth, programs director for the American Heart Association of Hawai'i. "In a cardiac arrest, minutes matter."
Defibrillators are becoming more common in Hawai'i and can be found in police cars, hotels, aboard planes and at shopping centers.
Since fire trucks were equipped with AEDs in 1997, the Honolulu Fire Department has saved the lives of more than 40 cardiac-arrest victims, Fire Department officials said.
AEDs are phone book-size devices used to treat victims of cardiac arrest. They deliver a low-energy, one-second electric charge to a person's heart to restart its natural rhythm.
Studies show that the survival rate exceeds 70 percent when a defibrillator is used in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest.
Every day in America, 1,000 people experience cardiac arrest; the condition kills about 250,000 Americans a year. It occurs when the heart suddenly develops a chaotic rhythm or stops beating.
Defibrillators are used in cases of cardiac arrest but not for heart attacks, in which the blood supply to the heart muscle is impaired but the heart continues beating.
Stan Krasinewski, general manager of Pacific Guardian Center, said the idea to install the devices in the building began when his operations manager, Pam Berce, attended a Building Owners and Managers Association International convention on the Mainland.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The group discussed the benefits of defibrillators for safety and marketing, Krasinewski said.
Carlton Ingram of Pacific Guardian Center stands ready to use a defibrillator should the need arise. The phone book-sized devices can treat victims of cardiac arrest.
"Our concern is for the tenants. We will do anything possible to save a life," Krasinewski said. "Also, if we can differentiate our building above other buildings we will certainly take that opportunity. We want to bring this to the attention of perspective tenants as well as the tenants already here at the center."
Businesses are also buying their own and training employees to use them.
Trudy Burns Stone, managing partner with the law firm Chun Kerr Dodd Beaman and Wong in the Topa Financial Center, said defibrillators are not available in the building.
The firm deals with many elderly clients and sometimes high-stress situations, so she felt it was important for them to have an AED.
"We have about 30 people in our office between the partners, paralegals and staff," said Stone, a board member of the Hawai'i Heart Association. "If you have a cardiac arrest, the only effective way to treat it is with a defibrillator. I told our office manager I think we should have our own."
A defibrillator costs about $3,000.
Albert "Spike" Denis, chief executive officer of Safeguard Security, which provides guards for a large number of downtown Honolulu office buildings, predicts that many will be adding defibrillators soon.
"Typically, security staff are the first responders to a medical emergency," Denis said. "Many of our contracts call for first aid and CPR training and now defibrillators as well. This is very proactive, forward thinking on the part of the Pacific Guardian folks."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
