16.05.2007
New heart starters at Copenhagen Airport

Copenhagen Airport adds 27 new heart starters made available by TrygFonden to its emergency response system as part of a research project. The heart starters will serve as a means of reassurance for passengers and employees and form the basis of a research project on cardiac arrests.

Copenhagen Airport’s emergency response system is based on comprehensive training of the airport’s professional firemen to provide assistance until an ambulance arrives.   Time is crucial in case of a cardiac arrest, and the airport therefore has its own operational centre which helps ensure a very short response time when a passenger or an employee needs help.   The 27 heart starters at Copenhagen Airport function according to the Public Access Defibrillator principle (PAD), which means that the heart starters can be operated by everybody. This minimises response times.

Heart starters in strategic positions

With Copenhagen Airport’s existing emergency response system, the airport is a perfect place for researchers to study laymen’s use of heart starters.

The only effective treatment of cardiac arrest is to give electric shocks to the heart, but there has been a good deal of debate about the location of heart starters in public places. Against that background, Fredrik Folke, a PhD student of Medicine, began a research project on the subject funded by TrygFonden last year. In collaboration with the Bispebjerg Hospital and the Doctors’ Ambulances in Copenhagen, he is studying the last ten years’ cardiac arrest cases in the Copenhagen metropolitan area.

"Heart starters should, as a minimum, be located in places where the flow of people is largest and where, statistically, the largest number of cardiac arrests occur. Copenhagen Airport is one of Denmark’s largest traffic hubs with more than 60,000 passengers per day and with several registered cardiac arrests. Thus, it is a textbook example of a place where heart starters in strategic positions can actually make a difference between life and death", said Fredrik Folke.

It is expected that Fredrik Folke’s survey will be completed in the summer of 2007, and the results will form the basis for a report on some of the factors that can be used to identify relevant positions for heart starters – not only in Denmark, but also internationally.

Easy to use

Niels Boserup, CEO of Copenhagen Airports A/S, is pleased that the airports at Roskilde and Copenhagen now have this extra equipment for passengers:

"I am very pleased that Copenhagen Airport can support this important research project funded by TrygFonden. Moreover, the initiative will serve as a means of reassurance for our passengers and employees. "

Gurli Martinussen, who is an executive of TrygFonden, agrees in the importance of broadening the knowledge of how to use heart starters:

"When a person suffers cardiac arrest, it is crucial to the chances of survival that the patient receives help immediately. Actually, the chance of survival falls by 10% for each minute that passes before the patient receives the first shock. TrygFonden has installed heart starters in public spaces over a number of years. This has been done applying different models and we look forward to seeing the results of the PAD project, which is new to us."

 

For further information, please contact:
Anette Haaning, head of communications at Copenhagen Airports, mobile phone: +45 2339 6802 or e-mail: anette.haaning@cph.dk.

Trine Heidemann, head of communications at TrygFonden, mobile phone: +45 2226 0054 or e-mail: th@trygfonden.dk.