May 22, 2008 9:44 pm US/Central
City Suggests Medical Device For All Businesses
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Officer Serafin and his partner said the AED is easy to use. You first attach pads to two spots on the person's body. The machine walks you through what you do next to save the person's life. (File)
CBS
One machine gets credit for saving 40,000 lives every year across the country. That's why a Minnesota city wants all its businesses to have one.
The City of Eden Prairie will soon ask its 1,000 businesses to buy an Automated External Defibrillator, or AED as it's commonly called.
Mike Augdahl thinks that's a great idea. He recently had quintuple bypass surgery and says he's proof the machine saves lives.
In the back of his mind, he knew someday his family history of heart disease would catch up to him. He just never thought it would happen at 38 years old.
"Everything went dark, and I felt myself going down," he remembered from while working at Costco in Eden Prairie a few weeks ago. He was finishing his day.
General Manager, Larry Toth, remembers Augdahl's first seizure, then another.
"His lips started to turn blue. His color, his skin color was real pale, and his eyes were kind of rolling back, and I kind of knew at that time, he was kind of in trouble," Toth recalls. "It was a moving experience for us."
Toth called 911 for help. The Eden Prairie Police Officers who showed up were prepared with an Automated External Defibrillator, or AED.
"Yeah, they're important very important," said Officer Travis Serafin.
He and his partner, Erica Halverson, remember Augdahl on his last breaths. They shocked him once, and within four minutes, he was talking, before going to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
"It saved a life here," said Officer Serafin.
He and his partner said the AED is easy to use. You first attach pads to two spots on the person's body. The machine walks you through what you do next to save the person's life.
An AED costs about $1,500. The Twin Cities Red Cross sells them and also trains people how to use them.
Eden Prairie Police officers who are on-duty keep an AED in their car, never knowing who they'll need to help. They hope businesses in their city might buy one too, and so does Augdahl.
"These days with heart disease running rampant, it's a good thing to have," he said.
He's now pushing the life-saving device, and so is his boss, who's now opening another Costco and stocking it with an AED.
"If you can save one life, it doesn't matter. It's paid for itself," Toth said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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