'Defibs for dummies' - Toronto

Automated External Defibrillators will be placed at 30 of the city's busiest subway stations throughout the spring and using them couldn't be simpler, one city councillor said at the unveiling at the Bloor-Yonge station yesterday. "It really is defibrillators for dummies," said Joe Mihevc, who also serves as vice-chairman of the TTC. "If a city councillor can do it, believe me, anyone can do it." The 30 public-access defibrillators are designed so that anyone who sees a person in sudden cardiac arrest can easily and quickly aid the person and quite possibly save a life. "The first 10 minutes are vital," said Bill Thomas, the interim CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. "As each minute passes the survival rate declines so the sooner help arrives the more likely it will be that a person can save a life." Each year in Ontario there are more than 7,000 cardiac arrests, Heart and Stroke Foundation stats show. And in 2008 there were 1,400 medical calls on subways or in stations, Mihevc said. - Toronto Sun