Iowa Affiliate (AED Access for All)
ABOUT
SCAA's Iowa Affiliate is AED Access for All. It is a non-profit organization based in Ankeny, Iowa. Mary Tappe, their founder and a SCA survivor and ICD implantee, works diligently to put AEDs everywhere people "work, play, and pray." The Iowa Affiliate has a team of AHA certified CPR/AED instructors who offer training to organizations and the general public, including a recent session at the Iowa State Fair. The team has also been active in organizing conferences, lobbying at the state and national levels, and finding and supporting SCA survivors in the area. Much of the outreach work is done through Mercy Medical Heart Center in Des Moines, where future plans include the distribution of prevention materials in heart failure patient packets.
Mary also sits on two American Heart Association committees and teaches nurses about ICDs and their efficacy. Please be sure to visit www.aedaccessforall.org to see all of the hard work that's been done and to view the various slide shows from the events.
June 14, 2014 The American Heart Association
held its 21st annual walk to fight heart disease and stroke. The co-chairs this year were Iowa States' basketball coaches Fred Hoiberg and Billy Fennelly who each have their own heart disease survivor story. Funds raised exceeded $350,000 and walkers numbered around 5000. It was a great day, sunny and 70's.
American Heart Association Heart Ball 2014
Butch & Susie Gibbs were honored with the Judy Willis Award as Volunteers of the Year at the 21st annual event.
AHA put us on a billboard on a very busy street on the border of Des Moines & West Des Moines!!
Butch Gibbs (far left) Carol Moehnke (9th from left), members of SCAA Iowa affiliate AED Access For All, joined other Central Iowa Chapter of the American Heart Association volunteers and staff at the State Capitol February 3, as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signs the proclamation declaring February as HEART MONTH in Iowa.
In recognizing National CPR/AED Awareness Week, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA) and its Iowa affiliate, Iowa AED Access For All (IAAFA), donated a Defibtech automated external defibrillator (AED) to the Lucas County Law Center and Jail. This was one of 30 AEDs donated to non-profit organizations across the United States. SCAA’s program is made possible through the generous support of Cardiac Science, Defibtech, and Zoll. With their support, SCAA have been able to touch thousands of lives over the past four years, particularly in rural communities where sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survival is even more sparse due to geographic barriers.
SCA is the leading cause of death in America, killing approximately 300,000 lives yearly. It is an electrical disruption of the heart’s natural rhythm and is not the same as a heart attack. It can strike any one of any age at any time at any place. Time is the enemy with a cardiac arrest. For each minute that elapses from the time of onset until the first shock from the AED is delivered, a victim’s chance of survival decreases 10%. Only about 5% of SCA victims survive.
An AED is made for non-medical people to use. The device talks you through everything you need to do. CPR/AED Awareness Week was designated by the United States Congress for Americans to become more educated about by-stander assistance in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and AED usage.
Many people are afraid they will shock a person at the wrong time and kill them,” said Butch Gibbs of Humeston, whose life was saved by the immediate start of CPR and the quick arrival of an AED. “The device will not shock until it is ready and you cannot kill the person because they are already dead. They will either stay that way or be revived.”
“You do not decide when to shock—the AED decides,” commented Susie Gibbs, RN, who works in the Emergency Room of the Lucas County Health Center in Chariton and was the person who started CPR on Butch when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in their home on April 2, 2004.
Butch and Susie Gibbs from SCAA's Iowa Affiliate visited with Senator Harkin's (D-IA) staff in Washington DC in October. Butch Gibbs is with us today because of HRSA's Rural and Community Access to Emergency Devices Program. It was a grant from that funding outlet that purchased the AED that saved his life. Senator Harkin is instrumental in influencing the outcome in conference of this bill. This life-saving program awards states with grants to purchase AEDs, train lay rescuers and first responders in their use, and place them in public areas where sudden cardiac arrests are likely to occur. Unfortunately, though, this program continues to be underfunded, despite knowing that communities with comprehensive AED programs, have achieved sudden cardiac arrest survival rates of 40% or higher.
SCAA's Iowa Affiliate is encouraging all those in the state to tell Senator Harkin that he plays a critical role in funding for AEDs and that people in Iowa need for him to step up and vote for this, as Iowa is a rural State!
They will be holding four fundraisers in Ankeny, Iowa, and invite all those who are interested to participate/ donate so they can continue their important work. To date they have raised enough funds to purchase AED's for the Ames Middle and High School, and will now use funds raised to help the West Des Moines school district.
SCAA's Iowa Affiliate Teams up with Local Survivor to Raise Money for AEDs
Back in February of this year, Erik Munn, an Ames, Iowa, businessman was shooting hoops at his local community center when all of a sudden, his heart stopped.
After he collapsed, one of the other basketball players immediately commensed CPR. Paramedics arrived on the scene minutes later to administer the AED shock that ultimately saved Munn's life.
At the time, the community center did not have an AED - Munn's brush with death changed that.
Since then, Munn has bought an AED for his business and has encouraged other Ames business owners to do the same. He has recently launched a campaign with SCAA's Iowa Affiliate, AED Access for All, to raise money to place AEDs in every Ames school.
Capt. Jim Hilton has become Ken and Susan Anderson's favorite Hampton police officer.
"He will be for quite some time," Susan said.
That is because on May 8 Hilton helped save Ken's life by using a defibrillator on him.
CONTACT
Butch & Susie Gibbs
Iowa AED Access For All
P. O. Box 201
Humeston, Iowa 50123-0201
Phone – 641-877-6731
Email – gibbee@iowatelecom.net