CPR
AED（Automated External Defibrillator, 自動体外式除細動器）で救われる命は沢山あります。今やスマートフォンも人命救助に役立つようになってきました。至る所に設置されているAEDの使い方を、私たちも再度見直すべきかもしれません。
記事にあるCPRはCardio Pulmonary Resuscitationの略で「心肺蘇生」という意味を持ちます。cardio-は「心臓の」，「pulmonary 」をそれぞれ表し，ご存知，resuscitationは「生き返り，蘇生」ですね。私はAEDの使い方を学んだことがないので、緊急時に備えて知識を蓄えておくべきだと思いました。（Starlight）
Programs underway to increase use of AEDs in Japan
Programs are underway throughout the country to train ordinary people to use automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, to help heart attack victims.
A smartphone app that informs people who know CPR if someone nearby has gone into cardiac arrest was tested in Tokyo’s Ueno Park in June. The free GPS-based program, called Heart Rescue, can be activated by the person having the heart attack or a witness.
Dr. Kensuke Igarashi said he developed the app to “efficiently connect people who have learned the resuscitation method to persons in need of help.”
An AED is a portable device that delivers an electric shock, if necessary, to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.
The government made AEDs available to the public 10 years ago and they are a common site all around Japan, but they are rarely used.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, some 23,800 cardiac arrest cases were recorded in 2012. The rate of survival a month later was 8.6 percent when ambulances were called, 14.2 percent when cardiac massage or other resuscitation techniques were applied, and 41.4 percent when AEDs were used.
However, AEDs were used in just 3.7 percent of all cases.
“People should be aware of where AEDs are available and use them without hesitation” when necessary, said Hideo Mitamura, vice president of the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society.
