Do defibrillators really save lives?

According to the medical examiner, Dan Miller’s death could not have been prevented by the use of an Automatic Electric Defibrillator (AED).  But sometimes defibrillators can help save lives. 

Longshoreman Tom Clowers suffered a cardiac arrest on the same SSA terminal in Seattle less than two weeks after Daniel Miller’s fatal heart attack.  Clowers received Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) from co-worker Vanessa Rasberry and electric shocks from an AED unit administered by manager Joey Arnold. 

“We’ve known for a long time that installing AED’s on the docks could save lives,” says to ILWU Coast Safety Committee Chairman John Castanho.  The union asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to require employers to install the devices, but the agency declined to make installation of AED’s mandatory—opting instead to merely recommend their use on docks and shipyards.

Employers agreed to place AED’s in grain elevators in Washington and Oregon, as part of the In-House Grain Agreement of 2004. 

Some employers have voluntarily installed a limited number of AED’s, including SSA that has installed four units on their docks in Seattle—two in the center towers and two at the outgate. 

The PMA vigorously opposed the ILWU’s effort to make companies install AED’s during the 2002 negotiations.  “The companies compared the cost of the new machines with the number of lives that might be saved—and told us it was too expensive to save just a few lives,” said Coast Safety Chairman John Castanho.  “It was cold-blooded, but it illustrated how much management values a human life versus their bottom line.”  Castanho says the Coast Safety Committee will keep pushing to install AED’s on all waterfront terminals and worksites.