By
Blake Smith
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Casinos use life-saving machine to curb heart attack deaths
A study conducted by UA Sarver Heart Center researchers has found that putting defibrillators - machines which jump start the heart after cardiac arrest - in casinos, would dramatically improve the number of lives saved each year.
During a 30-month period, machines put into casinos across the country were used on 105 patrons, yielding impressive survival rates, said Dr. Terence Valenzuela, principal investigator for the study.
When the machine was used within three minutes of suffering cardiac arrest, 74 percent of the patients survived to hospital discharge.
"We thought if we could get in the three minute range we could have good results," Valenzuela said.
People treated after the three minute mark saw a 49 percent hospital discharge survival rate.
The average response time was 4.4 minutes.
Valenzuela, who has been researching cardiac arrest for nearly 15 years, said the goal of the study was to find a place that has large concentrations of people with a high risk of cardiac arrest - older smokers with multiple medical problems - and improve survival rates amongst them.
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the most common cause of death in the United States.
Heart attacks claim about 225,000 lives each year.
In 1997, officials from Clark County, Nev. - which includes Las Vegas - called Valenzuela and said they had noticed an alarming number of cardiac arrests in their casinos.
Valenzuela and UA research specialist Lani Clark started looking into the possibility of putting defibrillators in the casinos as a way to curb the number of deaths from cardiac arrest.
By March 1997, the Stardust Hotel and Casino and 10 other properties offered to participate had defibrillators on their casino floors.
"Some (casinos) wanted to wait and see what happened," Clark said. "Then month after month, more came."
Security officers from the casinos were required to go through a five-hour training course to teach the proper way to use the machines.
"We decided to train them because they have specific physical locations that they don't leave," she added. "And they are the first to respond to emergencies, it was most sensible."
Valenzuela said the security officers were the right group to train because they would not "freeze up" during emergency situations.
The study expanded to include 32 properties and the training of nearly 1,400 security officers. Today, 64 casinos from Las Vegas to Mississippi and more than 5,000 security officers are involved in the ongoing project.
"They are coming online quickly," Clark said. "Some of the new casinos already have defibrillators."
Clark added that she would be open to expanding the study to include Tucson-area casinos.
But putting defibrillators into one nearby casino is not even being considered.
Tina Lentz, vice president of marketing for Casino of the Sun outside of Tucson, said a fire station equipped with defibrillators is only a couple of minutes away from the property.
She added that because the casino, which draws nearly one million visitors with an average age between 35 and 55, is only 50,000 square feet, installation of cardiac arrest equipment it is not necessary.
A new 200,000-square-foot casino, slated to break ground in January, will have emergency medical technicians and defibrillators spread around the casino floor because the building's massive size would make it more difficult for medics to maneuver around the facility if they had to be called to the scene.
The fact that there are a disproportionately high number of cardiac arrest occurrences in casinos cannot be linked to the stresses associated with losing money, Valenzuela said.
"There is nothing about casinos that is harmful to your health," he added.
