Friday, April 16, 1999
Company-owned defibrillator saved employee
Most workplaces don't have device
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Terri Keplinger was at work, and she was dying.
Slumped beneath her office desk, the 41-year-old buyer for General Electric in Evendale had a cardiac arrest the morning of April 7. Co-workers could not find a pulse.
But a few steps away was a portable defibrillator, a 5-pound device used to resuscitate someone whose heart has stopped.
“It brought me back to life,” the Glen Este woman said. Today, Ms. Keplinger encourages other companies to invest in the life-saving device.
Defibrillators have been in hospitals for years, but the life-saving machines — portable ones are about the size of a laptop computer — are increasingly finding their way into the workplace. Several of the Tristate's largest employers have bought them.
In January, Comair announced it will install defibrillators — which cost $3,000 to $5,000 — on its airplanes. Cincinnati has bought them for police cruisers to improve response times to emergencies.
“How could a company spend thousands of dollars on an event like a Christmas party, and then tell their employees that something that could save their life is too expensive?” asked Amy Bolen, account manager for NKEMS, which provides health and safety training.
The non-profit agency offers portable defibrillators and trains customers to use them.
Sudden cardiac arrest strikes about 350,000 people each year, according to the American Red Cross. In a cardiac arrest, the heartbeat becomes erratic and stops the effective pumping of blood. A
defibrillator shocks a heart back to a normal rhythm in seconds.
In February 1998, an American Airlines passenger was saved by a newly installed defibrillator while at the Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport. That spurred other airlines to install the devices and highlighted the technology to business owners.
Time is critical. An estimated 95 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims die. A portable defibrillator used by a trained worker has been known to improve survival rates to about 30 percent, their manufacturers say.
Ms. Keplinger said it is a miracle she is alive.
Nine months ago, a doctor told her she had high blood pressure. Further tests found she had a cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakened her heart, said Dr. Edward J. Schloss, her cardiologist.
Ms. Keplinger was on medication to strengthen her heart. She was at work April 7 in the purchasing department at GE when, at 9:50 a.m., she felt a change in her body.
“My gosh, I don't feel too good,” she said to herself.
Then she began to feel faint. She woke up hours later in a hospital room.
Co-workers thought she had fainted but couldn't find a pulse. Two of them, Mike Grimmer and Scott Machesney, are trained medics and started CPR immediately. They called GE's medical office, which delivered the portable defibrillator from a neighboring building.
Most machines look like a comput er connected to two electrodes, Dr. Schloss said. The electrode patches are placed on the body to let the machine detect a heartbeat. A computer chip then decides if an electric shock is needed and how much should be administered. The device can then give the shock to revive the person.
The training can take a few hours, Dr. Schloss said, and many of the portable defibrillators can be programmed to talk a user through an emergency.
Ms. Keplinger had suffered a cardiac arrest. She likely would have died had it not been for the quick action of her co-workers and the defibrillator, the doctor said.
A day later at Christ Hospital in Mount Auburn, physicians installed a defibrillator the size of a pager into her chest. Ms. Keplinger was back at the office — part time — by Monday.
GE bought the defibrillator in 1994 to enhance its emergency response, said Dr. John Zerbe, the company's medical director.
“We've always sought the best medical care for our employees,” Dr. Zerbe said. The device is used about two or three times a year.
Other Tristate firms with defibrillators include Procter & Gamble, American Financial and Skilcraft, said NKEMS's Ms. Bolen. She estimates about 12 Cincinnati-area companies have bought the device in recent years.
In March, the American Red Cross started a campaign to encourage businesses to invest in the devices. Ms. Bolen hopes someday the devices will be found in shopping malls.
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