Thursday, August 13, 2009

AED needs of the mariner community

OK, so this is a gem, I received this email (edited for privacy) from an emergency medicine interest group. Why didn't I try and study the AED needs of the mariner community?

When I was doing my residency in New York I sent an email to the FDNY EMS and they weren't interested in putting AED's in the main subway switching stations. They did a preliminary look at the rates of cardiac arrest near a subway station and found it would not be cost effective.

I had an idea to create legislation to put AED's in every television in America, with onscreen instructions in how to use them.. That would probably have saved lives.

Clearly I was not thinking along the right path. I should have taken off and sailed for a month and put the whole thing to rest.

"My name is XXXXX and I am currently a chief resident of the XXXXX Emergency Medicine Residency Program. I have sailed for many years and have an interest in the field of maritime medicine. I plan to do a one month elective at sea on a XXXX sailboat in the Caribbean. I plan to study the medical needs and insight of the mariner community's medical needs, specifically as it relates on on-board AEDs. I was interested if you could forward this to section members that I might talk with further about their expertise relating to this issue and possibly partnering with them on this research initiative. I appreciate your assistance and look forward to hearing from you."