Canada AEDs Helps Two at Hockey Rinks

Most Canadians enjoy hockey as a pastime and as a recreational activity. Two sudden cardiac arrest saves at hockey rinks in Canada using automated external defibrillators (AEDs) underscore the importance of an AED and high-quality CPR.

Perry Batchelor credits bystander CPR and the AED Plus^® for saving his life. Amazingly, he led the effort to install and fundraise for the very AED that saved his life.  Batchelor, a local police officer, was refereeing a local hockey game in Altona, Manitoba, when he suddenly collapsed.  Fast-thinking responders immediately began CPR and rushed to get the automated external difibrillator located in the rink.  Due to their quick actions Batchelor is alive today, and is using this event to encourage more facilities in his local community to purchase AEDs and place them where they are needed most.

In another hockey-related save, Paul Walters was playing in an old-timers hockey game in Nanaimo, British Columbia.  During the game Walters started to experience chest pains and collapsed suddenly.  His teammates, including an off-duty paramedic, immediately started CPR and called for the AED Plus kept at the rink.   When the automated external defibrillator arrived, the rescuers attached it to Walters and delivered treatment, saving his life.  The city of Nanaimo outfitted its local facilities with AEDs in 2008, after a runner who collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest  was saved because bystanders immediately started CPR and used an AED when emergency services arrived.