An effort’s underway in central Iowa to make more life-saving portable defibrillators available. The devices known as “Automated External Defibrillators” deliver a shock that gets a stalled heart beating again. Des Moines cardiologist Steven Bailin is launching a campaign through Mercy Hospital to have two thousand and five of the devices available in central Iowa by the year 2005.Bailin says the national survival rate for cardiac death is only five percent, but that dramatically increases with the use of “A-E-Ds.” Bailin says it only takes a few minutes training to learn how to use one of the A-E-Ds.Bailin and the hospital are asking local businesses to help purchase the A-E-Ds for schools and other public buildings. Bailin says there are about 100 A-E-Ds in use now, and he knows of at least three lives statewide that’ve already been saved by the devices.
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