Police see value of portable defibrillator program
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Charles Reeves, a former assistant police chief, credits a portable defibrillator dispatched by police and quick-thinking helpers with saving his life when he had a heart attack at Ala Moana Beach nearly four years ago.
Reeves, now 64, had retired from the Honolulu Police Department and was working in hotel security when he collapsed at a company picnic on April 30, 2000.
Right away, Reeves got help: Someone called 911; a retired firefighter who was in the park began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; a colleague started chest compression; and police officer Brian Taniguchi was dispatched from Makiki with a portable defibrillator.
"I started breathing again," Reeves said, although he didn't know the whole story until he regained consciousness a day later.
The portable defibrillator that helped jump-start Reeves' heart is one of 465 of the laptop-size units that HPD has acquired since 1999. The Fire Department, businesses and other organizations also have portable defibrillators, but HPD has the most units, most of them in the nearest squad car.
Honolulu police have used defibrillators to help save eight lives in the past five years, said Lt. Mark Ward, who helped coordinate the program to put the automated external defibrillators in police stations and cars.
In 1999, Police Chief Lee Donohue was the first person saved by one of HPD's portable units when he went into cardiac arrest.
Ward said the program began with 100 machines provided to the Honolulu Police Department by the City Council in 1999.
Since then, HPD has purchased 325 for $2,500 each using asset forfeiture money to bring the total number of the portable police lifesavers to 465. Another 40 defibrillators were purchased and donated to HPD by Pearlridge Center.
Ward said the department's goal is to have defibrillators in every police car.The units administer an electric shock through stick-on electrode pads.
Ward said police respond to about four defibrillator calls a day, but actually use them only about two or three times a month. Actual use is less frequent because sometimes the calls come for people who are not having a heart problem or because the rescue workers get there too late.
Reeves said he heard that some officers initially believed that the defibrillators should be at the disposal of paramedics and firefighters more than police officers. But as a longtime officer, he believes that most want to do whatever they can to help save someone.
"Once you have seen the anguish on the faces of these victims, it's very traumatic and very emotional," Reeves said. "If you can help somebody survive, your blessing is seeing it in the faces of their relatives."
Ward said there would be more good news if people called for help faster and learned CPR. "If we can only get people to recognize the emergency and call 911 in the first minute, our rate of survival would increase by 25 percent," he said.
"If those same people would begin CPR right away the survival rate would increase another 15 to 25 percent."
That's because without oxygen, the brain begins to die after four to six minutes but CPR can extend the window by 15 to 20 minutes or more, Ward said.
At the Honolulu Fire Department, Capt. Roger Goodell said 67 defibrillators are assigned to fire stations and battalion chiefs.
Goodell said the firefighters use the defibrillator pads on people about once a day.
From 1997 to 2002, the Fire Department recorded 52 lives saved. He said the number of people saved averages about 13 percent of those treated with the defibrillators.
Like Ward, Goodell would like to see more CPR and more defibrillators, not just with government workers but in airports, supermarkets and post offices.
Ward, who now works in emergency management command, said the statistics show that the quicker a victim begins getting CPR, the better the survival rate.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
