Many pools will soon be equipped with devices that shock a wildly beating heart back into a normal rhythm.
By JON WILSON
Published August 20, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - All nine city-operated swimming pools will get lifesaving machines for cardiac arrest victims, thanks to a triathletes club and a group of doctors.
Motivated by the death of one of its members last year, the St. Petersburg Mad Dogs have purchased automated external defibrillators for North Shore, Lake Vista and Walter Fuller pools.
The St. Petersburg Masters swim club also contributed.
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg General Hospital's medical staff voted to buy six to equip E.H. McLin-Campbell Park, Fossil Park, Jennie Hall-Wildwood Park, Childs Park, Shore Acres and Northwest pools.
The hospital itself will join the campaign, with plans to buy three more, said Richard Satcher, St. Petersburg General's chief executive officer.
Targeted would be venues outside St. Petersburg, Satcher said.
In Seminole, an AED (automated external defibrillator) is centrally located in the Seminole Recreation Center, said Jim Sheets, the city's recreation director. It can be used at the swimming pool or anywhere else at the rec complex.
Still another group - this one based at Global Access Unlimited, a mid-Pinellas County business - - held a fundraiser Sunday for the Matt Bostic Fund, named for a 21-year-old who died in 2000 after running an impromptu race in the company parking lot.
The Mad Dogs are continuing their effort to place more of the machines, which increase survival rates by about 50 percent when applied to a victim within five minutes of a cardiac arrest.
"They should be everywhere," said Rose Marie Ray, Robert Ray's widow. She will be part of a contingent making a presentation Thursday to the St. Petersburg City Council.
"Robert would have been so pleased," she said.
Ray, who died at age 54 while swimming at North Shore, might have survived the cardiac arrest had a defibrillator been available, physician Bruce Day said autopsy reports showed.
Day, a Mad Dogs member who was a friend of Ray's, asked the St. Petersburg General doctors to contribute. They agreed unanimously to spend about $10,800 for the six machines.
Day is hopeful other hospitals might take up the cause, noting that defibrillators are less expensive when they are purchased through city government.
The machines can be used by trained lay people. The Mad Dogs also bought a training device for North Shore Pool, where pool supervisor Mario Abadal said several of his staff are certified to teach others. Staff members from other pools will receive training at North Shore.
The defibrillators, which use pads placed on the chest, shock a wildly beating heart back into a normal rhythm. Computers automatically determine when a shock is necessary.
"There's not been a liability issue because these machines are very clever now. You're not going to zap the wrong person," Day said.
More than 350,000 people die suddenly each year and defibrillation is the key to survival, according to the July issue of Cardiology Review. Quick response time is crucial, lay volunteer training is important and community groups can play a big part, according to the article.
At least twice in the past five months, defibrillators have been credited with saving lives. St. Petersburg YMCA staff members in April used one to restore a 64-year-old man's heart to normal rhythm; a day earlier, Clearwater Beach lifeguards saved another 64-year-old man.
Another campaign to place defibrillators in public places was undertaken by Patty Latimer and Robert Swift, the operations vice president at Global Access. Bostic was Latimer's son.
Fundraisers have paid for machines at Boca Ciega, Gibbs and St. Petersburg high schools. Between 300 and 400 people attended Sunday's fundraiser, organized by Nick Tyson and held at Lou and Diane Falco's South Beach Bar and Grille, and contributed $1,500 to $2,000, Swift said.
The money will buy another defibrillator for a site to be determined, Swift said.
Contributions to the St. Petersburg Mad Dogs Robert Ray Fund can be mailed to P.O. Box 130006, St. Petersburg, FL 33733.
For information about the Matt Bostic Fund, call Global Access at 538-2528.
- Staff writer Julianne Wu contributed to this report.
