Heart-safe city Eindhoven

Time to take action! We realized that there were still too many places in Eindhoven where help would not be possible within 6 minutes in the event of a cardiac arrest. Based on this painful insight, we started making a plan to make the city of Eindhoven more heart-safe. At that time, intensive collaboration with Stichting Eindhoven Hartveilig was created in order to make a local impact. Accurate insight was provided into where extra AEDs were needed and it was also calculated how many civilian emergency responders still needed to be trained.

Thanks to the support of the Philips Foundation, we have been able to realize access to 44 AEDs. Mapping the locations for these AEDs was true precision work. After all, for many people it’s quite a big step to hang an AED on the wall. But thanks to the many visits to the neighborhoods, handing out flyers and the persistence of the Eindhoven Hartveilig people, all the locations were found and there are now enough AEDs in the city.

It's important that there are AEDs everywhere in Eindhoven, but it’s even more important that enough people can use them. And that's why we set up a large-scale event. During the Eindhoven Marathon, three runners wore a running shirt specially designed for Philips that makes the distance to the nearest AED visible. So energizing to see so many people being trained and it gave me goosebumps to hear the personal experiences of many. Each and every one of them is a special story, varying from sad stories about loved ones for whom help came too late to wonderful stories about loved ones who are still alive thanks to the quick help.

I'm very proud we were able to achieve this milestone together. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Philips Foundation, the Stichting Eindhoven Hartveilig, AED-Partner and many volunteers, a solid foundation has been laid for a comprehensive network in the city of Eindhoven.

Source: LinkedIn