Red Cross Honors PHL Airport For Installing Heart Defibrillators
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross gave a special award today to Philadelphia International Airport, for one of its most successful lifesaving programs.
At the ceremony, the Red Cross presented airport CEO Mark Gale with its "Preparedness, Health, Safety" award in recognition of the airport's automated external defibrillator ("AED") program, credited with saving 18 lives since the program began in 2001.
There are 120 AEDs installed airportwide, and Gale (below left) says 583 airport employees have been trained in CPR and using the AED.
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"That's our first line of medical treatment for somebody," he said today. "Many employees are trained, and there are also passengers who have medical training that know how to use these as well. And it's really just to buy those first precious few minutes, to possibly restart a heart until trained medical response staff gets on scene."
Also at the presentation was 62-year-old David Shaffer of Marcus Hook, Pa. (seated in wheelchair in photo), who was resuscitated at the airport on August 1st while waiting to catch a flight to Houston.
"The doctors at the hospital told me if it wasn't done here, I wouldn't be here today," he said.
For more information on how you can become certified in CPR and how to use an AED, go to redcrossphilly.org.
