Saving Lives In A Heartbeat

(As reported 3/3/99)

"The clock is ticking people. Let's go."

They're not paramedics. They're employees of the Crown, Cork and Seal Co. And today their job is learning how to save lives, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin.

One thousand people die of cardiac arrest every day. Hoping to reduce that number, the American Red Cross is targeting the place we spend most of our time: the office. Workers are being trained to use a device known as an automatic defibrillator, which can shock a heart into pumping again if it stops.

Frank Donaghue of the Red Cross says "We want to see these in health clubs and golf courses, airplanes and restaurants. Certainly in the workplace every hallway where you see a fire extinguisher you should see a defibrillator."

It's a new user-friendly model. With the push of a button, your coworker in a neighboring cubicle might be able to save your life.

Even in a best-case scenario, the nearest emergency medical unit can be five to 10 minutes away. But during cardiac arrest, every minute that passes reduces the chance of survival by 10 percent.

Seconds made the difference for Jim Young. He collapsed at the office gym last year, but his employer, Michelin Tire, had defibrillators on site. "If I had to wait for an ambulance I'd be dead," he says.

Michelin's corporate medical director Dr. David Brill says, "more and more companies will be experiencing cardiac arrest on the job in the workplace as their population ages."

The goal is to save 100,000 people every year by putting defibrillators in offices, going right to the source of our stress to make saving lives all in a day's work.