On OpenStreetMap, there’s an emergency=defibrillator object. It can be tagged with information like opening hours (e.g. if it’s inside a location that’s only open certain hours), a description of the location (“at the front desk”), etc.
For example, on the Android/iOS app OsmAnd, you can select ‘Defibrillator’ as a point of interest (POI) Additionally, choosing ‘Healthcare’ POI type will show not just hospitals, clinics, etc., but also AED locations.
Other emergency devices, like emergency phones, are also mappable.
Why YSK: quick access to defibrillators can save lives and significantly improve quality-of-life outcomes. The more complete this data is, the more useful somebody can actually expect it to be in an emergency. Even if the data isn’t queried during the emergency, seeing it on the map could help users know where they are ahead of time.
Caveat that it won’t shock anyone they don’t need to as long as that person isn’t conscious or moving…
The AED doesn’t shock people who are in asystole (flatline), contrary to popular myth. The point of shocking isn’t to start the heart, it’s “have you tried shutting it off and turning it back on again?” It shocks 2 rhythms, ventricular tachycardia (a type of very fast heart rate) and ventricular fibrillation (where the bottom part of your heart quivers but doesn’t pump). It’s possible to be alive and conscious in V tach, you can be pulseless and “dead” with V tach and you won’t have a pulse with V fib. So if you apply it to someone conscious, there’s a chance they could be in V tach and it will recognize that and shock them, killing them. It can also recognize movement as a shockable rhythm and deliver a shock improperly.
None of this should scare anyone from using an AED! If you have someone who isn’t conscious, isn’t breathing, and doesn’t have a pulse or you don’t know how to check for one, you can use an AED! Just don’t put one on someone who is awake and having chest pain “just in case” and if you need to move someone that has an AED applied, don’t do it while the AED says it is analyzing (you will know, it verbally says so and tells you to stop touching the patient!)
Go learn CPR! It is not hard, and you can save a life. Remember, if someone needs CPR you can’t screw it up! They can’t get any more dead, but you can make them better!
Well written and well explained! I knew just by reading your first sentence that you have or are riding in the back of the bus. From an old and thankfully retired medic - Glove up, be safe, and have fun out there! And who knows, your next page might be the coolest trauma ever!
I will add one bit of data for people to think about. If you witness an arrest and you immediately start CPR, patient survival rates are around 35%. I know that doesn’t maybe sound all that good. But if you wait for me show up in my amp-a-lamps with the woo woos and flashy flashies, then patient survival rates drop to less than 9%. It’s all you bystanders that save more lives with CPR than we do.
And if you ever need to do CPR, you go all in and do it like you mean it!
Thank you! I hope you’re enjoying your retirement! I’m currently an Advanced EMT working my way through that unique hell that is paramedic school :)
You got this! A paramedic is just someone that’s really, really good at EMT-B skills with a few extra toys.