Japan Day ????: AEDs in Tokyo, Japan

If you’re planning to have a heart attack, Japan may be the best place to have it. - Alice Gordenker, The Japan Times

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electrical therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm.

Haneda Airport Departure Hall

This needs to happen quickly because the chance of survival decreases by 10 percent for every minute the victim remains in cardiac arrest without being defibrillated.

Which means that by the time an ambulance with an AED arrives, most victims are unlikely to survive. In an effort to shorten the time between collapse and defibrillation, AEDs are increasingly being placed in locations where people congregate, including office buildings, shopping centers, schools, airports and train stations.

24 hours convenience store

Placement is happening faster in Japan than anywhere else in the world, according to Dr. Hideo Mitamura, a cardiologist who led a lengthy battle to get the rules on AEDs changed.

Until July 2004, only medical and emergency personnel were allowed to operate an AED in Japan, but now lay people can use them as well.

Ueno Park Koban

“It’s amazing how fast AEDs have been disseminated since the rules changed,” Mitamura said in an interview at Saiseikai Central Hospital in Tokyo, where he serves as deputy director.

“In 2006, 45,000 AEDS were sold and placed around Japan, making this the second largest market after the United States.”

"twenty six serving of heart attack please!" 

an AED placed in a restaurant at Ueno Park

  

Tawaramachi Station - nearest station to Taito Ryokan

well in case of someone collapse in the middle if the Famous Shibuya Crossing

people might suffer from heart attack looking at busty figurines - Akihabara

uhhh.. people might suffer from heart attack looking at clothes?

people might drown when they fell off the cruise or people suffer from heart attack looking at other people drowning - Hotaluna Waterbus from Asakusa heading to Odaiba

people might drown in the aquarium? maybe? - Aqua City Odaiba

uhhh.. flying ghost? and ghost frighten people and people seen ghost might suffer cardiac arrest(?)

  
Unfortunately, a number of tragedies occurred before Japan brought its laws into line with international recommendations by allowing public access to AEDs.

The most publicized was the death of Prince Takamado, a member of the Imperial family who collapsed in September 2002 while playing squash. Although an ambulance arrived within eight minutes, paramedics were too late to resuscitate the prince. He almost certainly would have survived had an AED been on site, Mitamura asserts.

people might get too excited looking at the Disney Princesses - the map shows 11 units of AED in the Tokyo Disneyland compound

Another tragic case was 14-year-old Shunpei Inage, who collapsed and died after running at school in June 2004, just one month before AED use by lay people was approved. His parents set up a foundation that has successfully pushed for AEDs in every high school in Hokkaido.

Prep School (i think)

Of course you don’t need money to get at the AED; it’s behind an unlocked door fitted with an alarm to discourage theft and alert bystanders that an emergency is in progress.

In Japan, lay people don’t have to have had training before using an AED in an emergency situation.

in a pharmacy in Asakusa Shopping Street

“We pushed hard that there be no requirement that laypeople be trained because the machines are very safe and easy to use,” Mitamura explained.

The AED diagnoses whether a shock is really needed and gives automated, step-by-step voice instructions. (In Japan, most AEDs speak only Japanese.)

“Japan was very late in allowing public access to AEDs,” Mitamura acknowledged, “but we went a big step ahead of Western countries by not requiring training.”

That said, it’s better to know your way around an AED before you have to use one. Let’s all get some training. We might just save a life.

...

yeah, you might as well say that AED hunting is one of the reasons of Why Japan?

ok, i am sorry that i stopped updating after Day 5.

it is...

just...

that...

i was lazy.

nyiahahahaah!