The New Jersey State Bar Association is pressing counties across the state to outfit courthouses with more defibrillators, as a potential lifesaving measure for those who suffer sudden cardiac arrest.
In a letter sent to administrators in all 21 counties, NJSBA President Jeralyn L. Lawrence stressed the importance of placing defibrillators “on every floor of all facilities with clear signage and opportunities for courthouse staff to be trained to use the machines,” she stated. Doing so would help ensure the safety of the many attorneys, judges, court staff and members of the public who visit the courthouses daily.
“It is my sincere hope that with the Judiciary, you are able to make this request a reality and make our courthouses safer for all who visit every day,” the letter stated.
The NJSBA’s push to broaden defibrillator access is led by Amy Vasquez, a trustee and child welfare attorney, whose husband, attorney Peter N. Fiorentino Jr., went into cardiac arrest at the Gloucester County Courthouse in 2011. He died days later, leaving behind a 3-year-old daughter.
Valuable lifesaving time elapsed while a defibrillator was located and transported from an office in the courthouse to a public area on another floor where Fiorentino collapsed, a tragedy no family should have to endure, the letter states.
“The courthouse is a place of enormous stress. People are there fighting for their livelihood, their children, their freedom. And it’s not just the general public, it’s attorneys and judges,” Vasquez said. “If there were public access defibrillators placed throughout the courthouses, it would save lives.”
Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the U.S. The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that more than 350,000 out-of-hospital deaths from cardiac arrest occur each year, 100,000 of which could be prevented if defibrillators were more widely available.
Patients who suffer cardiac arrest have a 90% chance of survival when a defibrillator is used within a minute, according to the AHA. The odds decrease by 10% for every minute the defibrillation is delayed. The rate of survival triples when defibrillators are used by a bystander.
Defibrillators are required in New Jersey schools, health clubs, assisted living facilities and nursing homes, but their use is not mandated in courthouses. While there are public access defibrillators in many courts throughout the state, they are typically not placed in easily accessible locations, according to the letter.
“I think there’s a moral obligation to have more defibrillators, given the clientele who are required to be in the courthouses, as well as for the protection of attorneys and judges,” Vasquez said.
Fiorentino was 42 and in good health when he collapsed on the second floor of the Gloucester County Justice Complex in July 2011. A defibrillator was slow to arrive, Vasquez said, in part because one was located on a different floor, and sheriff’s officers at the scene did not know where to find it. Doctors managed to restart Fiorentino’s heart later that day, but he never regained consciousness. He died from anoxic brain injury, caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.
“The doctors had said if he was revived in a timely manner, he might have just got up and walked away,” Vasquez said.
The NJSBA’s letter calls for leaders in each county to develop a unified plan with statewide stakeholders on defibrillator placement throughout New Jersey’s courthouses.