Woman runner aged 30 dies in London Marathon
A 30-year-old woman collapsed and died while running in the London Marathon on Sunday.
She collapsed at Birdcage Walk, near St James’ Park, on the final stretch of the 26.2 mile course.
The woman was given medical attention at the scene but died this afternoon.
A statement on the London Marathon website said: ‘We would like to emphasise that our immediate concern is for the family of the deceased. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with them at this difficult time.’
Tragedy: A woman died while attempting to complete the race
The statement added: ‘We will not be releasing any further details of this tragic incident until next of kin have been notified and formal identification has taken place. We would ask for your understanding in this matter.’
The fatality occurred with the finishing line only one bend away.
Birdcage Walk borders St James’ Park and is the last road that runners have to travel before reaching Buckingham Palace, where they turn onto The Mall on which the finish line is located.
Competitors do not reach Birdcage Walk until after completing 25 miles of the marathon.
Not the first: Sunday’s death was the 10th since the race’s inception
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘Our staff attended a 30-year-old woman today on Birdcage Walk as part of the event and took the patient to hospital as a priority.’
Sunday’s death was the 10th since the London Marathon began in 1981.
Five of the previous fatalities were a result of heart disease in runners apparently unaware that they had a problem. Four of these were cases of severe coronary heart disease.
The last competitor to die was a 22-year-old fitness instructor in 2007.
Italian lower leagues demand defibrillators
The head of Italy’s third and fourth division football leagues has threatened to call off matches this weekend unless teams guarantee that they have a defibrillator at their grounds.
Lega Pro president Francesco Ghirelli said he wants clubs to ensure they have the life-saving equipment, after the death last weekend of Livorno’s Piermario Morosini, who collapsed during a division two match at Pescara.
“By Thursday we want a written confirmation from the club presidents that as agreed upon at the beginning of the season, there will be a defibrillator at the ground, otherwise there won’t be any play on Sunday,” Ghirelli said.
Automated external defibrillators (AED) can be crucial in helping to save people’s lives by giving an electric shock in some cases of cardiac arrest.
There is always one either at the ground or in the ambulance on stand-by outside at professional football matches in Italy but that is not the case for amateur or youth sport.
The use of an AED at Pescara on Saturday was reportedly delayed by three minutes due to the ambulance being blocked from entering the stadium by a police car parked in front of an entrance.
However the AED would not have been used on the player as his heart had already stopped beating.
Defibrillators are used if the heart is still active and are applied in cases where the heart is beating in a life-threatening, dysfunctional pattern. Its use allows the heart to establish a regular pattern.
According to the British Heart Foundation, the chances of survival in cases of cardiac arrest decreases by 14 percent for every minute with which an AED is not used.
In the wake of Morosini’s death, Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete vowed to increase the use of AEDs at football grounds, although without giving any specific details.
Defibrillator ‘could not have saved’ Morosini
Doctors who rushed to Piermario Morosini’s aid on the pitch claim the presence of a defibrillator “could not have saved him.”
The 25-year-old collapsed during today’s Pescara-Livorno Serie B match and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Some reports suggest the cause of death may have been an aneurysm, but even more are discussing the delay in getting treatment. A traffic police car was parked in the wrong place, blocking off the ambulance’s entrance to the pitch area, so Pescara and Livorno players were seen forcibly pulling the stretcher through.
“When there is a cardiac arrest, which is what Morosini was having, for at least the first couple of minutes you must do CPR. Then, if there are electrical signs, the defibrillator comes into action,” explained Pescara chief medic Ernesto Sabatini.
“The defibrillator could not be used because it automatically detects electrical impulses. If there are none, then the machine does not activate.
“For a moment the boy had been revived, but in the ambulance the crew continued trying without success. When he arrived at the hospital, the first thing they did was introduce a pacemaker to give electrical impulses back to the heart.”
The chief cardiologist of the Pescara hospital was in the stands of the match as a fan and rushed down to help the initial treatment.
“When I reached the field, Morosini was in a cardiac and respiratory arrest,” said Professor Paloscia.
“We gave a cardiac massage for an hour and a half, first manually and then with various instruments, but there was nothing to be done.
“We cannot yet say whether the cause of death was cerebral or cardiac, as this can only be confirmed via an autopsy.”
There have been many recent cases of cardiac arrests on the pitch, including Cameroon international Marc Vivien Foe during the Confederations Cup in June 2003, Sao Caetano defender Serginho in 2004, Sevilla player AntonioPuerta in August 2007 and Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque in 2009.
Fabrice Muamba collapsed during the Tottenham-Bolton match last month, but was revived by medical staff and is on the road to recovery.
Public schools shun free defibrillators
PUBLIC schools have been forced to decline the offer of free defibrillators – because the education department does not support their use at school.
NSW is out of step with other states such as Victoria which welcomes the lifesaving defibrillators into schools.
Grieving family and friends of Jamie Paraskevopoulos, 16, who collapsed and died after finishing an exam at Aquinas College, Menai, in 2010, last year raised about $50,000 for 18 defibrillators which they then offered to 16 schools, along with two for Jamie’s football clubs.
Aquinas College had bought its own defibrillator unit but four public schools had to turn them down after the department said it would not support them.
Education Minister Adrian Piccoli declined to comment, and said he’d seek the department’s advice on its policy.
Defibrillators, which can be used after basic CPR training, can only shock someone whose heart has stopped.
Julia Zuza helped with the fundraising, during which time she discovered the recent deaths of two other teens in southernSydney from sudden cardiac death.
“With this condition, and that is what happened to Jamie, going into cardiac arrest is the first sign something is wrong,” Ms Zuza said.
“If you have had CPR going, the defibrillator will kick in and shock and possibly bring the person back. Everyone wanted the defibrillators.”
Ms Zuza supports The Daily Telegraph’s campaign for CPR training in all schools.
Sue Buckman, whose 19-year-old son Stephen died playing AFL in 2010, started Defib Your Club, for Life! in Victoria – which has since led to defibrillators in public schools.
A NSW education departments spokeswoman said: “The Department’s current policy does not support the use of defibrillators on school grounds.
“Staff members at schools are trained to do CPR and ambulances respond immediately when contacted by a school.”
The department has no centralised record of how many students had suffered a cardiac arrest at school, despite sudden cardiac death killing up to 500 fit, young Australians, mostly aged under 35, each year.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND YMCA ARE GIVING AWAY FREE 100 CPR LESSONS. TO BE IN THE RUNNING, EMAIL NEWS@DAILYTELEGRAPH. COM.AU AND TELL US WHY 20 STUDENTS FROM YOUR SCHOOL SHOULD RECEIVE FREE TRAINING
Muamba shows need for more defibrillators
Take time to search the full collection of recent newspapers and blogs and you’ll soon find the stories of children dying suddenly at school. Kyle Rees, 16, died after he was hit on the head by a cricket ball in February;Leonie Nice, 12, collapsed and died after she was hit on the chest by a rugby ball; Luke Chapman, 15, collapsed and died after swallowing his tongue during a rugby match.
Could these problems have been detected, or the accidents averted, if these children had been screened beforehand? Sadly, no, because a sudden cardiac arrest and other causes of sudden death can be brought on by a seemingly inconspicuous accident. The case of Fabrice Muamba(Report, 19 March), who had been screened four times for cardiac problems prior to his collapse last Saturday, shows screening cannot guarantee anything. Nor can the installation of defibrillators, and this is not something we would claim, but there are differences between the two policies which make the latter preferable. A sudden cardiac arrest can be caused by a blow to the chest or choking, and a screening is no guarantee that long-term problems would be detected anyway. Once a cardiac arrest has occurred, the first 10 minutes are vital and an on-site defibrillator will give the patient a huge boost (6% up to 74%) in terms of survival chances if it can be applied immediately.
We’d love to see both the provision of screening and distribution of defibrillators improved for schools. But we’d argue that screening will only benefit a minority of cases and should not take precedence over providing defibrillators, which will have benefits in any resuscitation situation. They are a vital piece of safety equipment, for everybody, and will save children’s lives. An improvement in screening is necessary, butHand on Heart will continue to focus on its mission to provide free defibrillators and CPR training to UK schools.
David Howarth
Chairman, Hand on Heart Charity
Bolton Wanderers’s Fabrice Muamba in fight for his life
Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers footballer, is ‘critically ill’ in the London Chest Hospital after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest during Saturday’s FA Cup quarter final with Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Club medical staff and paramedics used CPR and defibrillation as Muamba, 23, fought for his life on the pitch.
Bolton said that the midfielder was “in a critically ill condition in intensive care”.
Shortly before half-time, Muamba collapsed without warning and players swiftly signalled for help. There had been no previous indication that he was in distress before he suddenly lost consciousness, and the gravity of the situation swiftly became apparent. Bolton manager Owen Coyle was heard to shout “he’s just collapsed” and rush on to the pitch, while players from both teams were clearly distraught.
One report claimed that a consultant cardiologist, who was watching the game from the stands, rushed on to the pitch to help treat Muamba. He received heart massage from paramedics for approximately six minutes before being carried to the tunnel on a stretcher. He continued to receive CPR while on the stretcher and had a mask to help with his breathing — defibrillators were also used in the tunnel.
Referee Howard Webb decided to abandon the match, which stood at 1-1, with the players clearly in no fit state to continue. Coyle and club captain Kevin Davies accompanied Muamba to hospital. Fans in the stands chanted Muamba’s name before slowly dispersing while on the social network site, Twitter, there was an outpouring of support from the football community.
Japan’s Asahi Kasei to buy Zoll for $2.2bn
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Chemicals group Asahi Kasei is paying $2.21bn for Zoll Medical, a US maker of defibrillators and other critical care medical equipment, in a deal aimed at speeding up the Japanese group’s diversification into healthcare.
The bid, which is the third overseas acquisition by a Japanese company in the healthcare sector within just over a year, highlights the strong appetite for cross-border mergers and acquisitions as Japanese companies seek to expand outside their stagnant home market.
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Last February, Fujifilm acquired two biopharmaceutical companies from Merck, while Terumo acquired a US medical device company this January.
Asahi Kasei’s bid, which represents a 29.6 per cent premium over Zoll’s average share price over 30 days, gives the Japanese group access to the US healthcare market, the largest in the world, as well as expertise in an area which is seeing firm demand in global markets.
Zoll is one of the world’s top three makers of defibrillators, along with Philips and Physio-Control. Defibrillators are used to save lives by giving patients an electric shock in some cases of cardiac arrest.
“In the medical devices business, the US market leads the world, not only in size and scope, but also in technological innovation, so establishing a strong infrastructure in the US is an important step for Asahi Kasei,” said Taketsugu Fujiwara, company president.
The US company, which posted an 18 per cent increase in revenues to $523.7m in the year to October 2 2011, has enjoyed a cumulative average growth rate of 16 per cent for the past decade, according to a banker close to the deal.
The two companies plan to pursue new opportunities in the high-growth markets of Asia, they said.
The Japanese market for defibrillators has become saturated with the top two suppliers – Fukuda Denshi, which supplies products made by Philips, and Nihon Kohden – controlling about 80 to 90 per cent of the market, says Katsuro Hirozumi, analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo.
However, Zoll also provides services related to defibrillation and critical care and its LifeVest – the world’s only wearable defibrillator – has not yet been introduced into the Japanese market.
The Japanese group said it planned to make “strategic investments to accelerate the realisation of Zoll’s mission of leading the world in resuscitation technologies”.
Asahi has targeted healthcare as a key strategic sector which will “power a new phase of growth for the group”, the company said. It has a goal to build a global healthcare business with a focus on critical care.
It aims to increase sales to Y2,000bn ($24.3bn) in 2015 from Y1,598.4bn ($19.5bn) in the year to March 2011.
Asahi Kasei also aims to increase its overseas sales from 28 per cent to 32 per cent of the total by 2015.
Defibrillator locating website launched in West Midlands
A website has been launched in the West Midlands which lets people use a postcode or place name to find the nearest defibrillator in an emergency.
The Defib Finder website also gives directions to where the defibrillator is kept and a contact name.
West Midlands Ambulance Service, Safeheart UK and the Community Heartbeat charity have spent three years developing the website.
It stores the locations of 2,500 defibrillators.
‘Less recovery’
The website covers Birmingham, the Black Country, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said it hoped the website would eventually hold a national database of locations.
The website is the first to be developed with the co-operation of an ambulance service, the spokesman added.
Duncan Parsonage, from the organisation, said: “Should anyone you know ever suffer a cardiac arrest your first port of call should always be to dial 999 and commence CPR, but more often than not in such situations there are other people in around who could help by fetching a defibrillator.”
He said the quicker the defibrillator was used the better a person’s chance of survival and the less time they would spend recovering from the cardiac arrest.
The website will also tell the ambulance service when the defibrillator was last used, how many people are trained to use specific device, and when each defibrillator is due for a maintenance check.
Defibtech to Show New Lifeline PRO AED at Medica 2011
Lifeline PRO provides manual override for professional use and a high-resolution color display
DUSSELDORF, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Defibtech will demonstrate its new Lifeline PRO automated external defibrillator (AED) at Medica 2011, Nov. 16-19, in Dusseldorf, Germany.
“With AEDs in more than 40 countries, Defibtech continues to set the bar for innovation, ease of use and value”
The Lifeline PRO provides professional responders with full manual control over shock energy and shock delivery. In manual mode, the ECG is clearly shown on the PRO’s large, brightly lit, high-resolution color display, and the user can select the energy level and decide when to initiate charge and shock. In AED mode, the PRO can display either an ECG or step-by-step video instructions for performing defibrillation, chest compressions and rescue breathing.
“The Lifeline PRO finally gives professional responders an affordable way to do fully manual defibrillation. In addition, the PRO’s 3-lead ECG monitoring capability gives them another valuable tool to use in caring for their patients,” said Gianfranco Buchbinder, Defibtech’s vice president of international sales.
In addition to having full manual capabilities, the Lifeline PRO can be used in AED mode, allowing the AED to make the shock/no-shock decisions using field-proven arrhythmia detection technology. “In AED mode, the Lifeline PRO provides CPR coaching and allows the rescuer to dynamically switch between hands-only CPR and CPR with breathing,” Buchbinder added.
The Lifeline PRO continues Defibtech’s tradition of ease-of-maintenance with extensive configuration and information menus presented on a full-color screen. When CPR protocols change, users can update the audio and video instructions in the field by installing a software upgrade using a USB cable or data card. In a similar fashion, data from the unit can be recorded or retrieved from the PRO using a card or USB cable. The unit will also be available as an AED with ECG display, without manual override, to be marketed as the Lifeline ECG AED.
The Lifeline PRO and Lifeline ECG are not yet available for sale. These products will be available in certain worldwide markets upon applicable regulatory approval.
Like other Defibtech AEDs, the Lifeline PRO is distinguished by ruggedness and durability, award-winning ergonomic design, easy maintenance, and biphasic technology, a clinically proven waveform and algorithm to deliver shocks and save lives.
“With AEDs in more than 40 countries, Defibtech continues to set the bar for innovation, ease of use and value,” Buchbinder said. “We’re excited to be showing the Lifeline PRO at Medica 2011.”
Phonebox to become a lifesaver
The disused red telephone box looks set to become one of the smallest life-saving medical centres in the country.
Ever since public kiosks were introduced in 1920, they have been used as a means of calling for help in an emergency.
In Feering, Essex, a telephone box now could be given an even more vital role: as a convenient place to keep an automated external defibrillator. The door will be opened only via a press-button keypad.
source: Braintree and Witham Times
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