RTA/Metra need defibrillators

On Oct. 8, I was a passenger on Union Pacific Northwest Line Train 610 - a train I take weekday mornings from Woodstock to Chicago. After leaving Barrington, I heard an announcement of a medical emergency on board and the need for medical personnel. I said a silent prayer, the train stopped at Palatine and EMTs arrived some minutes later.

A woman who'd gone to help eventually came back to her seat in my car and said that a passenger had suffered a cardiac arrest, that he didn't make it. Her opinion was that if there'd been an automated external defibrillator (AED) on board, he might have survived.

According to the American Heart Association, AEDs are "very accurate and easy to use. With a few hours of training, anyone can learn to operate an AED safely."

A 2005 Heart Association Science Advisory noted that AED's in airports and casinos and with police officers have demonstrated a 49- to 74-percent survival rate when immediate bystander CPR is provided and defibrillation occurs within 3 to 5 minutes of collapse.

A passenger's death and a lawsuit prompted the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. to install AED's on its Boston area trains and provide AED training for crew members. An AED was used within weeks of installation, saving a passenger.

How many deaths or lawsuits will it take to get the RTA/Metra to give its passengers the same accessibility to lifesaving equipment that Boston commuters and all airplane passengers already have? With a family history of heart disease, I have a vested interest in the answer.

Paul Lockwood

Woodstock