If you've got to go into cardiac

arrest in a public place, Fayette County may be one of the better places

in the country to do it.

According to Peachtree City

firefighter/Paramedic Chris Campbell, the ready accessibility of automatic

external defibrillators can make the difference between life and death.

And Fayette is taking the lead on the East Coast in expanding this technology

the way it has been done in Seattle, where an estimated one out of two

adults has learned CPR, and where AEDs are everywhere available.

Campbell is the point man for

the local AED program, a campaign sponsored by the American Heart Association.

"It's the goal of the AHA to make AEDs as readily accessible as fire

extinguishers," Campbell says.

"Right now, in Fayette

County, the sheriff's cars and every police car in Peachtree City carry

an AED. They sometimes beat us there by a few minutes, and have used them

several times," he says.

The AHA campaign is to locate

AEDs wherever large groups of people gather. Eventually the organization

hopes to have grant money available to assist in the purchase of the machines

which have come down in price to about $3,000 but that may still be a

decade away.

The city of Peachtree City

responded positively to Campbell's approach, he said. "They took

that first step" and funded one for City Hall, one for the senior

center The Gathering Place, and one for Kedron Field House, with the aim

to place one in each recreation center in town.

The first Fayette industry

to buy an AED was NCR in Peachtree City, and both Panasonic and Lawson

Mardon Atlanta, also in Peachtree City, have expressed interest.

Campbell said he also wrote

to all the churches in town. Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church is the

first to order an AED, but, "I know others will catch on as word

gets around."

The Fire Department is trying

to spread that word, and is offering the brief training course needed

to operate the virtually foolproof equipment. The device is simple to

use, literally talking the operator through the required steps, but Campbell

does recommend the class, backed up with a CPR course, provided by the

Fire Department at minimal cost.

The placement of AEDs in airliners

has received a lot of press, Campbell noted, and the campaign has succeeded

in reaching several large hotel chains.

The city of Riverdale is also

placing AEDs in patrol cars, but Campbell said that to his knowledge,

no other metro Atlanta community has as comprehensive an AED and CPR campaign

as the one he is developing here.