Northeast Iowa hospital helps put shock into community

Allen Hospital in northeastern Iowa will improve the chances for survival of heart-attack victims, by donating automated defibrillators to public facilities in Waterloo and Cedar Falls. C-E-O Rick Siedler says the easy-to-use devices analyze the heart’s condition and prepare the controlled electric shock that could re-start it. He says early response is the key to saving cardiac-arrest patients.Allen Hospital is the heart center for that part of the state, and will share the technology with places that have a lot of public traffic. Siedler says the A-E-D units are simple enough for an untrained person to use, but training lets an operator use it more effectively. That training’s very minimal, and specialists at Allen Hospital will give it to folks from the organizations that get the donated AED’s. The defibrillators will actually be delivered in February, which is National Heart Month. Each unit costs three thousand dollars.