[Publib] Defibrillators

[James Casey]

Reed:

I have a difficult time accepting your certitude that use of the
defibrillation is entirely without risk or danger to victims.

"First do no harm!" is a very important consideration in the field of
medicine. Like Ed Trever, I am not without some family connection to
medicine.  My in laws are both medical professionals.  The imperative
for staff to act in a medical emergency with only cursory training could
not only direct focus of staff towards intervention and away from the
most important action we can take in summoning emergency personnel via
911, but could leave the Library and Municipality open to major
lawsuits.

If our Village decides that defibrillators are needed and training
should be mandated, the Library shall do its best to follow that
mandate.  However, the Village and emergency services (some of the best
in Illinois) have actively discouraged such involvement by us.  

James B. Casey --- My own views
Director of Oak Lawn Public Library
ALA Council Member



-----Original Message-----
From: Reed Winterbourne [mailto:the_reeder at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 1:52 PM
To: James Casey; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Defibrillators

I hope to hell that you guys don't ever need to be defibrilated and
don't 
get it (even with an AED available) because somebody is waiting for 911
to 
respond.  I just do NOT get your logic.  The AED is designed so that it
WILL 
NOT SHOCK someone who isn't in fibrilation.

Reed


>From: "James Casey" <jcasey at oaklawnlibrary.org>
>To: "Edward Trever" <etrever at lincolncounty.org>,"PUBLIB" 
><publib at webjunction.org>
>Subject: RE: [Publib] Defibrillators
>Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 08:52:31 -0600
>
>Some of our local Villages require Library personnel to be trained on
>the defibrillators and others (like Oak Lawn) have insisted that
Library
>staff NOT use such devices and simply call 911 ASAP so that trained
>professionals can use them properly.  Ed's statement below makes a lot
>of sense to me.  Library staff may mistake an epileptic seizure or bad
>reaction from some drug for a heart attack and end up doing more damage
>than good. Our own Emergency and Special Situation Manual focuses on
>calling 911 first and not intervening personally when emergencies
occur.
>
>
>
>
>James B. Casey ---- My own views
>
>Director of Oak Lawn Public Library
>
>ALA Council Member