Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Question re defibrillator

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

We had an interesting discussion about AED's. Someone proposed we get one for 
the common house, but then one of our residents that is a nurse spoke against 
it. She said she would personally not feel comfortable using an AED on one of 
her neighbors, even though she is more than qualified as a nurse to do so. 
We had a similar conversation. One argument was that the user of defibrillators 
was said to be only effective if used within 5 minutes. The chance of someone 
having a heart incident in the CH and someone being present who remembered 
where the defibrillator was and how to use it was slim. No one spends enough 
time in CH to calculate the odds. And most units are too far from the CH to get 
there, open the door, race inside to retreive it, and race back home within 5 
minutes. Possibly but people usually hesitate before taking action. 

It made more sense to have it stored in a unit in which a member was in danger 
of a heart attack. Then group that wanted it also investigated maintenance and 
found it was too complicated to ensure a working device on a regular basis. 

There is more in the archives — the last time we discussed this there were some 
communities who had them.

Sharon

Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC