According to the American Heart Association, it’s estimated that as many as 450,000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest each year.

By comparison, about 41,000 people die in car accidents each year and home fires claimed the lives of 2,670 people.

Use of an Automated External Defibrillator raises the chance of survival by 40%

According to Augustus Grant, M.D., in an article written for the Time Magazine (Feb 16th, 2004), more then 64 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease ... thie year an estimated 1,200,000 Americans will have a heart attack, an estimated 700,000 for the first time.

In August of 2003, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) surveyed 400 of its members working in major corporations and businesses and found that 34 percent of those who have implemented an AED program have used their AED at least once in order to help save a life. The survey also showed that 66 percent of victims of sudden cardiac arrest in the workplace were successfully revived.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 13 percent of work place fatalities--more than 400 per year--are caused by sudden cardiac arrest. Of the victims, OSHA estimates that 160, or 40 percent, could be saved by defibrillation within five minutes. Every year, SCA strikes up to 450,000 people in the U.S. alone.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs when the lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles) suddenly stop beating normally and develop what is called ventricular fibrillation (VF). VF is a chaotic heart rhythm that is similar where the heart muscle begins quivering which prevents the heart from effectively pumping blood. If this condition is not corrected immediately; death will follow within 10 minutes. A defibrillator is the only known device/technique that stops the chaotic electrical heart activity and allows the heart to re-pace itself to a normal rhythm.

Occasionally, the heart will re-pace itself (5% of incidents); and if the patient has received Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in this instance; a patient will survive. Utilizing a defibrillator increases the odds of survival from 5% with just CPR to as much as 80% if a Defibrillator is placed on the patient within a few minutes of Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

Not only is it essential that a defibrillator be utilized in such events, but that a defibrillator is accessible within a few minutes of a cardiac arrest. For every minute following onset of sudden cardiac arrest, the chance of that person's survival drops by 10%.

As such, waiting for the arrival of an ambulance or police car for just 6 minutes will reduce the opportunity for more than half of all patients to receive a successful resuscitation outcome.

Because of increasing awareness and demand, the leading manufacturers of defibrillators began producing a new device which required very little training, was portable and relatively inexpensive; the Automated External Defibrillator (AED). On November 13, 2000 President Clinton signed the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act. This represents the most comprehensive “Good Samaritan” legislation ever established which provides complete immunity from civil litigation for ALL PEOPLE USING AN AED.

Shortly thereafter, the Airlines began getting sued by family members of people who might have been saved had the airlines provided access to an AED. Businesses now take the initiative to invest in AEDs rather than expose themselves to the types of lawsuits that were initiated shortly after the introduction of the fire extinguisher.

Somes v. United Airlines, Inc.

In 1995, 39 year old Steven Somes died of a cardiac arrest on a United Airlines flight from Boston to San Francisco. The claim against United was based on the failure to have an automatic external defibrillator ("AED") on board Mr. Somes' plane, which would have saved his life. Several obstacles stood in the way of successful resolution: AEDs had not been required by the federal government in 1995; no major U.S. airline carried them in 1995; and the extensive regulation of airlines by the federal government gave basis to a defense that federal law preempted state law, such that no claim was available.

Paul, John, and Ronald Kidd and John Sikorski of Robinson Donovan made extensive investigation into the medical aspects of cardiac arrest, the technological history of AEDs, the U.S. passenger airline industry, and use of AEDs by foreign airlines beginning in the early 1990s. On behalf of Steven Somes's widow Jamie, a wrongful death action was filed against United in January 1998.

The memorandum of law against preemption was prepared by John and Paul. Federal District Court Judge Morris Lasker largely adopted its reasoning in his lengthy written opinion. Pre-trial discovery included extensive motion practice and depositions in England and France. In the course of obtaining complete records of the airline industry's internal deliberations on the subject of AEDs, Paul and John obtained substantial sanctions against the principal lobby group of the U.S. domestic airline industry, the Washington D.C.-based Airline Transport Association. Somes' lawyers were prepared to prove that United - like most other major U.S. airlines - was well aware in 1995 of the inexpensive, reliable, and proven life-saving capacity of AEDs, but refused to install them on grounds of cost. United settled the case before trial, the terms of which remain confidential.

According to a recent New York Times assessment, the Somes case was instrumental in prompting the U.S. airline industry to carry AEDs on passenger planes. The case has also been recognized as a milestone in the cause of Public Access Defibrillation ("PAD"), countering the wide-spread but misguided perception that supposed liabilities associated with AEDs outweigh the benefits of installing them. Paul and John, in collaboration with Robinson Donovan, continue to handle wrongful death claims against airlines for failure to have an AED, including suits filed in Chicago against Continental Airlines, which was settled in the summer of 2002, and against Frontier Airlines, which settled shortly before trial.