In a bid to save heart attack victims by offering quicker first aid, Vienna to introduce 60 public defibrillators around the city over the coming months.
In a bid to save heart attack victims by offering quicker first aid, Vienna to introduce 60 public defibrillators around the city over the coming months, health authorities said. Over 10,000 people die every year in Austria following cardiac arrest.
"There's only one mistake you can make, that's to do nothing," Harry Kopietz, head of the regional parliament and president of the association Puls, which is backing the project, told journalists.
The defibrillators, which help restore the heart's normal rhythm via an electric shock, will be installed in stand-alone LED advertising boards, such as on bus stops and pavements.
To help users who may otherwise feel intimidated, anyone who uses the device will be automatically connected to emergency services who can assist with reviving the patient.
An ambulance will be dispatched at the same time, thanks to a built-in global-positioning system (GPS), and the device itself will also explain what needs to be done.
Limited oxygen can provoke irreversible brain damage within three minutes of a heart attack, which is why quick action is vital, without waiting for rescue services arrive, Puls manager Mario Krammel said.
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A link on the Puls website and a smartphone app will indicate where defibrillators are located.
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It calculated it would earn the money back through advertising, as the defibrillator pillars will still act as advertising signs on one side.
Further defibrillators were to be introduced regularly in the future.
Similar projects have already been tested in Britain, France, Canada and Italy.
Source-AFP