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Defibrillator Fire
Aired January 29, 2004 - 13:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They are supposed to restart hearts and bring people back to life from the brink of death. But did a defibrillator perhaps lead to the death of a patient? Authorities say no, in the case of 47-year-old Brenda Juit (ph). Now a paramedic was trying to revive the Connecticut woman when a spark from a defibrillator set her clothes on fire. The chief medical examiner's office has ruled the fire had nothing to do with her death. She was already dead, authorities say, when the fire started.
Now, defibrillators have become more common, and you may be concerned about how safe they are. Let's talk to a couple of folks who know the dos, the don'ts and have a lot of expertise on this.
Captain Reginald Latimer -- excuse me, Chief Reginald Latimer, and Captain William May from the Atlanta Fire Department here to show us how these devices work.
Good to have you both with us. Didn't mean to demote you there, sir.
All right, Chief Latimer, first of all, in all your experience with these devices over the years, have you ever had a situation like we just described?
REGINALD LATIMER, SECTION CHIEF, ATLANTA FIRE DEPT.: We've never had a situation like this. This is a very unusual situation for it to spark like that.
O'BRIEN: All right. That's good to hear at the outset. Now if we could, let's start with a little demonstration here. Just explain how these things work, give us a little bit of defibrillator 101, if you will.
LATIMER: Sure. Once the patient goes down into cardiac arrest, where there's no heartbeat or pulse and breathing, as you can see from the mannequin there, there are three leads that are attached to the patient, if you will, and those leads allow the paramedic to read the rhythm of the heart, and that will make a determination as to the amount of energy that...
O'BRIEN: So if there's not that classic sinus rhythm that we see and are familiar with, this is when they make the decision perhaps to use a defibrillator.
LATIMER: Yes. And depending on the rhythm that shows up on the screen, they will make a determination as to how much energy to give to the heart. O'BRIEN: All right, so then, once the decision is made there and the amount of energy is dialed in, if you will -- and that's based on the weight of the patient, so forth, the size of the patient, that kind of thing?
LATIMER: It is based upon the rhythm of the heart. And from the operator's standpoint, he will apply a certain amount of pressure, somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds of pressure, to the heart with the paddles.
O'BRIEN: Now I notice you put some -- there's a conductive jelly that is used. That's just to help get the electricity to where it's needed.
LATIMER: That's exactly right. That's used for conductivity, to allow the energy to travel from one side of the heart to the other.
O'BRIEN: Right, and you know, you always hear on the TV shows and so forth "clear." There's good reason for that, right?
LATIMER: Yes, very much so. The energy from the patient can transfer or conduct itself into other mediums if you're touching the patient or the patient was on some type of gurney that has some metal parts that could transfer to the paramedic.
O'BRIEN: All right, captain, why don't you zap it for us? Show us how that looks or -- is that going to do anything or...
LATIMER: Yes, as you can see, the captain is placing the paddles, one at the upper right part of the chest, and the other is on the lower left side, and he is applying somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds of pressure. And once he has that in place, he will have charged up the paddles and push a button that will send the electrical shock to the heart.
O'BRIEN: All right, and because you know, these things are on walls at airports and so forth, people shouldn't fear them because of what they read about this incident?
LATIMER: That is absolutely correct. In fact, the ones that we see in the airports, those are manual -- those are automatic defibrillators. In other words, the machine will do all the work. The one that you saw Captain May using, the operator has to do all the work. So the ones in the airport are extremely safe, for even for the untrained.
O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Captain Reginald Latimer, Captain William May, Atlanta Fire Department, thanks for that demonstration and explanation. We appreciate your time.
LATIMER: Quite welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 29, 2004 - 13:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They are supposed to restart hearts and bring people back to life from the brink of death. But did a defibrillator perhaps lead to the death of a patient? Authorities say no, in the case of 47-year-old Brenda Juit (ph). Now a paramedic was trying to revive the Connecticut woman when a spark from a defibrillator set her clothes on fire. The chief medical examiner's office has ruled the fire had nothing to do with her death. She was already dead, authorities say, when the fire started.
Now, defibrillators have become more common, and you may be concerned about how safe they are. Let's talk to a couple of folks who know the dos, the don'ts and have a lot of expertise on this.
Captain Reginald Latimer -- excuse me, Chief Reginald Latimer, and Captain William May from the Atlanta Fire Department here to show us how these devices work.
Good to have you both with us. Didn't mean to demote you there, sir.
All right, Chief Latimer, first of all, in all your experience with these devices over the years, have you ever had a situation like we just described?
REGINALD LATIMER, SECTION CHIEF, ATLANTA FIRE DEPT.: We've never had a situation like this. This is a very unusual situation for it to spark like that.
O'BRIEN: All right. That's good to hear at the outset. Now if we could, let's start with a little demonstration here. Just explain how these things work, give us a little bit of defibrillator 101, if you will.
LATIMER: Sure. Once the patient goes down into cardiac arrest, where there's no heartbeat or pulse and breathing, as you can see from the mannequin there, there are three leads that are attached to the patient, if you will, and those leads allow the paramedic to read the rhythm of the heart, and that will make a determination as to the amount of energy that...
O'BRIEN: So if there's not that classic sinus rhythm that we see and are familiar with, this is when they make the decision perhaps to use a defibrillator.
LATIMER: Yes. And depending on the rhythm that shows up on the screen, they will make a determination as to how much energy to give to the heart. O'BRIEN: All right, so then, once the decision is made there and the amount of energy is dialed in, if you will -- and that's based on the weight of the patient, so forth, the size of the patient, that kind of thing?
LATIMER: It is based upon the rhythm of the heart. And from the operator's standpoint, he will apply a certain amount of pressure, somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds of pressure, to the heart with the paddles.
O'BRIEN: Now I notice you put some -- there's a conductive jelly that is used. That's just to help get the electricity to where it's needed.
LATIMER: That's exactly right. That's used for conductivity, to allow the energy to travel from one side of the heart to the other.
O'BRIEN: Right, and you know, you always hear on the TV shows and so forth "clear." There's good reason for that, right?
LATIMER: Yes, very much so. The energy from the patient can transfer or conduct itself into other mediums if you're touching the patient or the patient was on some type of gurney that has some metal parts that could transfer to the paramedic.
O'BRIEN: All right, captain, why don't you zap it for us? Show us how that looks or -- is that going to do anything or...
LATIMER: Yes, as you can see, the captain is placing the paddles, one at the upper right part of the chest, and the other is on the lower left side, and he is applying somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds of pressure. And once he has that in place, he will have charged up the paddles and push a button that will send the electrical shock to the heart.
O'BRIEN: All right, and because you know, these things are on walls at airports and so forth, people shouldn't fear them because of what they read about this incident?
LATIMER: That is absolutely correct. In fact, the ones that we see in the airports, those are manual -- those are automatic defibrillators. In other words, the machine will do all the work. The one that you saw Captain May using, the operator has to do all the work. So the ones in the airport are extremely safe, for even for the untrained.
O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Captain Reginald Latimer, Captain William May, Atlanta Fire Department, thanks for that demonstration and explanation. We appreciate your time.
LATIMER: Quite welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com