4 plus years ago a 49 year old man lost his life while blowing the snow off his sidewalk. A Paramedic (the patients son) witnessed the arrest and started CPR (and I am sure this would be the most wholehearted effort at CPR that he could do). In spite of his best efforts his father died, possibly due to the fact that the debibrillator that arrived with the first responding fire engine had a dead battery. To make matters worse the second battery was dead as well. Shortly thereafter this 49 year old gentleman was also pronounced dead.

An investigation has shown that these batteries were more than 2 years past the manufacturers suggested replacement date. There also seems to have been a failure to identify the dead batteries due to a regular checkout of the defibrillator. There has been a settlement of 3.2 Million dollars in this case (which would have more than paid for those batteries).

Beyond the dollars involved we must remember what got most of us (from the field provider to the administrator)  into this business – the desire to help someone.

Lets keep our eye on the ball and ensure we do everything possible to provide that high level of care we all talk about.

By the way, we may save our self a load of money on the side!

Failure to maintain the batteries in an AED has resulted in a $3.2 million dollar (USD) settlement being awarded to the family of a 49 year-old man who died from a heart attack in which the defibrillator batteries did not work. Frederick Partyka, a stationary engineer who worked for the city of Chicago, was using a snow blower in front of his home in the 2700 block of North New England when he collapsed on Jan. 22, 2005. Partyka’s son, a paramedic with the Hillside Fire Department, witnessed the incident, called 911 and administered CPR to his father while waiting for help.
When the fire engine arrived at 3:16 p.m., the paramedic found Partyka in ventricular tachycardia, a life-threatening condition. But when the paramedic attempted to shock Partyka’s heart back into rhythm, the defibrillator didn’t work, a lawyer for the Partyka family said. The batteries were old and did not hold a charge. When the old batteries were replaced with spare batteries, the defibrillator powered off again, the lawyer said. At 3:22 p.m., an ambulance arrived with a working defibrillator. But it was too late. Partyka was already dead.
“The industry standard required — and the manufacturer recommended — that this particular defibrillator battery had to be replaced every two years,” said Susan Schwartz, an attorney representing the Partyka family. “But, on Jan. 22, 2005, no battery had been purchased by the city since October 2000. They didn’t properly maintain the batteries for these defibrillators.” During Monday’s Finance Committee meeting, First Deputy Corporation Counsel Karen
Seimetz told aldermen that the defibrillators used on that day were replaced in March 2005. The new version uses batteries “automatically changed out with the manufacturer every two years,” she said. “In the thousands and thousands and thousands of times these defibrillators have been used, this is the first known instance where this has ever occurred,” she said.
Under questioning from aldermen, Seimetz acknowledged that no one knows whether a working defibrillator would have saved Partyka. But, she said, “The problem is under the law, if there’s any percentage chance that a person could have survived but for the alleged negligence, that’s enough to recover [damages]. Even though he had an underlying heart disease, this might have made the difference. There was no damage to the heart on autopsy.”

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