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Abstract # 898
American Heart Association meeting report: By adding 4 pennies to ticket cost, sports arenas would have funds for emergency cardiac care equipment DALLAS, Nov. 9 -- Placing "heart shocker" devices -- automated external defibrillators (AEDs) -- in major stadiums and sports arenas across the country could save the lives of cardiac arrest victims at a cost of just pennies per person, according to a study presented today at the American Heart Association's 71st Scientific Sessions.
"If the cost of the defibrillators and training staff to use them were passed on to the ticket-buying public, each ticket holder would pay no more than four cents extra," says Mary Ann Peberdy, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and chairperson of the resuscitation team at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital in Richmond.
Automated defibrillators provide an electrical shock to help restart someone's heart after it suddenly stops beating due to cardiac arrest.
"Early defibrillation is the single most important intervention affecting survival from sudden cardiac arrest," she says. "High-tension excitement associated with big-time athletics creates a fertile environment for these often deadly attacks."
The study calculated the cost of providing defibrillators in professional sports venues in the National Hockey League, National Football League, National Basketball Association and major-league baseball.
On average, 25 defibrillators and 50 trained staff members should be more than enough to cover each major sports facility, Peberdy and her colleagues estimate. The study assumed that each defibrillator would have a 10-year lifespan and training would be offered annually for that same period. The cost of each AED is about $3,000, not including fees for training staff on how to use the devices.
Researchers found that purchasing AEDs would add an extra one cent to the cost per ticket sold in the National Hockey League, two cents in the National Football League and National Basketball Association, and four cents in major-league baseball.
Tickets for sports events range from about $12 to $36, so adding a few pennies to the ticket price would hardly be noticed by sports fans, says Peberdy.
Combined annual attendance at major league football, basketball, baseball and hockey games alone totals almost 120 million, says Peberdy. And tens of millions more attend major college sports events.
Because of traffic and congestion, stadiums and sports arenas are among the most difficult areas for the paramedics to reach, says Peberdy.
"Conventional emergency medical units simply can't get to these people in time to do much good," she says. "That's where on-site defibrillation capability can make a huge difference at a miniscule cost.
"Yet many sports venues have delayed purchasing AEDs because officials believe the cost is far higher that it actually is."
She adds, "Because of this, the vast majority of U.S. sports facilities still don't have defibrillation devices. But the truth is, the cost of AEDs has dropped dramatically in the past few years to about $3,000 per unit, and stadium personnel can be trained to operate them for a small cost."
Each year an estimated 250,000 Americans die suddenly from cardiac arrest, according to the American Heart Association. The total number of people who suffer cardiac arrests nationally each year during sports events is unknown. But at the University of Nebraska stadium where standard defibrillators were used in the 1960s, there were about four cardiac arrests per year, Peberdy notes. Most people survived, she says, because defibrillators were available on site.
Joseph Ornato, M.D., was a co-author of the study.
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NR 98-4570 (SS98/Peberdy) Media Advisory: Dr. Peberdy can be reached by phone at: (804) 828-4889; or by fax at: (804)
828-5192. (Please do not publish phone numbers.)