OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2014. Natural Pharmaceuticals, represented by Ulf Oldenborg from Sweden, donated an automated external defibrillator to Vilnius International Airport (VIA), which is already the second defibrillator given by this company.

The smart device was fitted in VIA non-Schengen area – a sterile zone of the airport accommodating vast flows of passengers waiting for their flights every day.

“Our company is a distributor of food supplements from natural fish oil, helping to maintain a normal heart function. Therefore, our attempt to contribute to life-saving reinforces the mission of our company, which is to promote people’s self-awareness that they have to take care of themselves,” head of Natural Pharmaceuticals said. “Our defibrillator donation programme was developed to enable life-saving in cases of emergency”.

“The airport is an intense movement as well as heightened stress area. Our surveys show that passengers experience the greatest stress lining up to enter the security-screening point,” VIA Managing Director Gediminas Almantas said. “We highly appreciate this initiative – none of us is protected against a sudden collapse; therefore, we are happy about the opportunity provided by Natural Pharmaceuticals to get prepared for the cases of emergency in advance and to ensure conditions for passengers to feel safer.”

“In order to reduce the chance of emergencies and to create conditions for a timely first aid, we donated another defibrillator to VIA to be fitted in the non-Schengen area,” Mr. Oldenborg said. “The shortage of defibrillators in public spaces where a lot of people gather is indeed a serious problem requiring the attention from the public, businessmen, physicians, and other responsible institutions. It is indeed terrible when you are amidst a crowd of people but they cannot help you in case of emergency.”

Last autumn Natural Pharmaceuticals already donated an automated external defibrillator to VIA, which was installed behind the passenger screening checkpoint. Before that, the airport had a semi-automated defibrillator, which could be used in the event of emergency. However, only specialists entitled to administer first aid can operate a semi-automated defibrillator – airport’s aviation security officials or well-meant passengers having a medical licence. By contrast, any passenger can activate an automated defibrillator donated by Natural Pharmaceuticals and help a person in need of emergency aid. This smart device is equipped with special audio instructions; its use is especially safe and simple. After the second automated external defibrillator was installed in VIA non-Schengen area, the airport already has as many as three vital devices.

According to Lidija Maciuliene, health specialist at VIA, an external defibrillator is a vital device at the airport. “The airport environment itself requires to be prepared to administer first aid to a person in need of medical assistance. A sudden death can happen anywhere and anytime. It doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, it can strike anyone. The key aim of contemporary medicine is to fight death. Hence, VIA pays special attention to the training of airport employees focused on the development of basic life support skills. We are bound by legal as well as moral implications to help the injured person and to administer first aid in the event of clinical death. Basic life support skills make each employee a more useful member of contemporary society even without a special medical education,” Lidija Maciuliene said.

Statistics show that two out of three deaths resulting from a heart attack occur even before the patient gets into a medical institution. If immediate basic life support (resuscitation) is initiated in such a case, the survival rates become twice as high. There is a big chance to restore a heart function and breathing if resuscitation starts no more than 4 minutes after collapse. However, to save a person’s life, resuscitation alone is not enough, though it is one of the steps of the “Chain of Survival”, which is essential until the arrival of qualified medical aid:

Early activation of emergency medical services > Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation > Early defibrillation > Early advanced life support

“Such an automated defibrillator which has been installed today is a smart and reliable computer-assisted device helping to apply defibrillation in a safe manner following audio and video instructions. Once you open a device, you first hear a sound and see textual instructions what to do and how defibrillation should proceed. Once electrodes are attached to the person in need of emergency aid, the device will analyse heart activity and indicate whether defibrillation is required and perform it, if required,” Ms. Maciuliene explains the operation of the new device in detail. According to her, it is also important that the second defibrillator donated to the airport was installed in the non-Schengen area, making access to the device easier to the entire flow of passengers in the non-Schengen area in the event of emergency.

VIA health specialist tells that it is often very difficult to determine the cause of sudden death on the scene of an emergency, even to a qualified physician. Hence, in cooperation with Natural Pharmaceuticals, it is sought that each person present at the airport (employee, passenger or guest) would be able to accomplish the three steps of the “Chain of Survival” immediately, until the arrival of emergency medical services.

According to the EU guidelines, an external defibrillator should be fitted in public places, where at least 200–250 people gather 16 hours a day. One device is required for such a number of people. VIA is visited by around 5,000 people every day. Natural Pharmaceuticals, having given the second defibrillator to Lithuania, has already donated five such devices in Poland.