Medicor Cardiology Donates an Automatic External Defibrillator

Medicor Cardiology, part of Atlantic Medical Group with offices in Bridgewater and Hillsborough, has donated an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) to the Flemington-Raritan Baseball Association for use at their baseball complex.

An AED is used to detect an irregular heart rhythm from the lower chambers of the heart, called ventricular fibrillation, the rhythm which causes Sudden Cardiac Arrest.  If this arrhythmia is found, the AED then provides a shock to the heart, a life-saving treatment which aborts the arrhythmia.

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs in 450,000 people in the United States each year and is usually fatal.  It is most commonly caused by a heart attack, but it can occur if a projectile, such as a baseball, strikes the chest at just the right time in the heart cycle. With sudden cardiac arrest, the arrhythmia prevents the lower chambers of the heart, the ventricles, from pumping blood to the body. If no blood is being pumped to the brain, the victim passes out and collapses. If a patient suffers sudden cardiac arrest, the sooner the patient is shocked, the greater the chance of surviving. Fifty percent of victims of sudden cardiac arrest survive if shocked within two to three minutes, but only ten percent will live if the shock is more than ten minutes from the time of the collapse.  Timing is everything and having an AED as close as possible to potential victims can be life-saving.

On October 4, 2017, Medicor Cardiology presented the AED to the Flemington-Raritan Baseball Association solidifying Medicor’s long-term commitment to the heart health of the Hunterdon and Somerset County communities.  Prior AED donations by Medicor include Bridgewater Baseball’s Prince Rogers Complex, Somerville Recreation’s Carol Pager Sports Complex and the Hillsborough Baseball League fields in Mountain View Park. The Flemington AED will be kept outside of the snack shack at the baseball complex.