Alberta woman named Shannon Willner together with her sisters and their mother went out shopping for their Mother’s Day present. That day turned out to be a nightmare for them.
According to Willner, my mother started having shortness of breath and her lips turning blue. One of my sisters called the emergency numbers. While they were talking to the emergency dispatcher, I noticed my mother started to convulse.
Life-saving techniques
We moved our mother out of the store so that the ambulance could immediately locate us. The dispatcher told us if there is any defibrillator in the area. I asked the customer service of the store if they have a defibrillator. The personnel of the store immediately paged the management.
We waited for about 3 minutes, but the management people never showed up. At that moment the ambulance has arrived and my mother was already in cardiac arrest. The paramedics immediately provided CPR on my mother but she was not revived. Willner is not looking for anything from the store, but I don’t want this kind of incident to be happening again to other people.
Willner wonders if the employees of the store have any idea if they have an AED or an automated external defibrillator or not. It is an important device for people suffering from cardiac arrest. If she was told there wasn’t one, she could have tried another store nearly.
According to the spokesperson of Alberta Occupational Health and Safety, they do not require businesses to install AED in their places. If they choose to add this device in their businesses, they make sure the use of an AED should be included in the emergency response plan and the first aid training program.
During an interview with Willner after the incident, she wants a visible and easy access of an AED or a defibrillator in every store. I want every staff to be properly trained in these life-saving techniques such as first aid, CPR and the use of an AED. It’s been hard on us. It just happened very fast. Maybe it could have helped and a possibility that my mother would have been revived.
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