Should Gyms Have Defibrillators?

Mar. 18 -- If you are exercising at a health club and your heart goes into a potentially fatal rhythm, your survival may depend on a shock from an automatic external defibrillator or AED.

But odds are good that your gym does not have one of these potentially life-saving devices. One recent study in Ohio found that 17 percent of the fitness centers reported at least one sudden heart attack over a five-year period, but only 3 percent of the facilities had an AED.

Yet defibrillators work. If you have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital, you have only 10 minutes before it's too late. Every minute you lose, you lose your chance of recovery. So they have to be nearby.

AEDs have been coming down in cost, and they are easy enough to use that even people without training can save lives. These devices have been used successfully in airports and casinos and malls for years now.

We're reaching the point where I think we have to start recommending them. In a health club setting, we know the risk of cardiac arrest is high, especially in people that are older. I believe AEDs should be used given their safety.

The American Heart Association encourages AEDs at all types of fitness centers, but specifically recommends them for centers that cater to people at higher risk of cardiac events (senior citizens, people with disabilities, centers for cardiac rehabilitation, etc.)

"We want fitness centers to evaluate all the links in the survival chain," says Vinay Nadkarni, spokesperson for the association's emergency cardiovascular care committee. "If a fitness center is right across from a fire station, they would have easy early access to a defibrillator. That center might want to concentrate their financial efforts on training staff in recognizing emergency situations. A rural center that is far from EMS help should consider a defibrillator even if their customers are generally low-risk."