With seniors' needs at heart, lawmaker delivers a lifesaver
By MEGAN SCOTT, Times Staff Writer
Published June 17, 2005
DUNEDIN - Visitors to the city's senior center can rest a little easier.
Thanks to Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin/Holiday, the Hale center on Douglas Avenue will have an automated external defibrillator.
Anderson presented the yellow, 3-pound, $1,000 device at Thursday's commission meeting.
AEDs are used to shock the heart if a person goes into sudden cardiac arrest. They can be used on heart attack victims before emergency personnel arrive.
The devices automatically analyze a victim's heart rhythm and allow an electric shock to be delivered when necessary.
"It's very easy to operate," said Anderson. "You open the shirt, put the pads on the chest, push a button and then step back. It's a no-brainer. That's the beauty of it."
Anderson, a former mayor of Dunedin, co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, last year to encourage senior centers to install AEDs.
The Legislature appropriated $240,000 for the Department of Elder Affairs to purchase and distribute AEDs to 240 multiservice senior centers across the state. The centers were responsible for paying half the costs, but in most cases a donor paid their portion.
Dunedin resident Ted Napp said Anderson should be commended.
"What I have heard is it doesn't require a great deal of technical knowledge," he said. "It is self-explanatory. You can accommodate someone (in distress) without calling for a doctor."
Anderson said he got the idea for the bill from Good Morning America, when a doctor on the show talked about AEDs.
He vowed that if he was elected, he would introduce a bill to get the devices in senior centers.
He is also donating three AEDs to Community Aging and Retirement Services in Pasco County for senior centers in Elfers, New Port Richey and Hudson.
"Time is critical," Anderson said. "If you don't get an AED within 7 minutes, you could be brain damaged. Ten minutes, you could be dead."
According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and 95 percent of victims will die.
