By Emma Jolliff
A professor of cardiology and St John's are calling for the Government to fund 10,000 heart-starting machines to be spread throughout workplaces and the community.
They're called defibrillators, or AEDs, common in public areas and workplaces overseas, and used when people suffer heart attacks.
There are two in Parliament - interestingly none in the executive wing - and around 170 staff are trained to use them.
The device administers a shock across the heart.
"These can do no harm," says Prof Harvey White. "It'll read a fast, irregular heart rhythm and it'll say, 'Prepare to shock, stand back, shock now.'"
Prof White says an AED increases a patient's chance of survival from between 5 and 10 percent to 70percent. It's all about time.
"Every minute of delay, death increases 10 percent," he says. "So 10 minutes' delay, you're almost a goner."
While the $4000 units are already installed in some places, like Victoria University and Westpac Stadium. Prof White's calling for 10,000 more around the country.
A select committee is considering whether they should be available in all communities and workplaces.
"We don't have them in the Auckland casino, we don't have them at the airport, we don't have them at Eden Park, we have the World Cup coming up next year."
But Eden Park says on event days it has specialist paramedics with defibrillators on site.
Not only do people need to know how to use them, they need to know where to find them
"At Auckland Museum they have three," says Prof White. "There was a cardiac arrest recently, nobody knew where they were."
St John's Ambulance also supports the use of AEDs.
"They're safe, they're easy to use, and if you can use a mobile phone you can use an AED," says Tony Smith.
Mr Smith says the best outcomes are seen when the AED is applied within five minutes of an arrest. That's, on average, half the time it takes for an ambulance to get there.
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