Patricks Pub and Eatery Training saves lives

Patrick’s Pub and Eatery owners Allan and Jeff Beetle have put safety on the menu.

Last week, a certified instructor from Stewart Ambulance Service in Meredith reviewed the CPR and Heimlich maneuver life-saving techniques with Patrick’s management team and took the safety lesson a step further, teaching them how to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to help revive patrons who’s hearts have stopped beating or are beating irregularly.

In a three-hour session, Patrick’s staff learned how to respond effectively in an emergency situation by operating the equipment, which uses an electric current to restart a failing heart.

“We have over a quarter of a million people come through our doors every year, and this gives us one more tool to use if we run into a situation where we can help someone,” says Allan Beetle, who participated in the training.

The recent training at Patrick’s comes a month after the manager on duty, Alicia Carsen, successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on a customer who was experiencing a total blockage of his airway. “Alicia was alerted to a problem at a table,” Beetle says. “When she arrived at the table, the man was in obvious distress. She then performed a successful Heimlich maneuver and cleared his airway.”

Beetle says the AED equipment, now permanently housed in the restaurant, would allow staff to come to the aid of a customer in cardiac distress.

Given to Patrick’s through a grant from the N.H. Department of Safety, Beetle says he was wary of accepting the equipment when it was first offered.

“I really wasn’t comfortable with being responsible for knowing how to use something a doctor or a highly trained medical professional ought to be using,” says Beetle. “I didn’t want to have it here at Patrick’s and not know how to use it correctly”.

Beetle has since learned that the AED, a device about the size of a laptop computer, is easy to operate and will not function if it detects a regular heartbeat.

The AED analyzes the rhythm of the victim’s heart for any abnormalities and, if necessary, directs the rescuer to deliver an electrical shock — called defibrillation — which may help the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm of its own.

Beetle says the equipment talks to the rescuer, directing his or her actions, and even says things such as, “Stay calm.”

Beetle says in a restaurant where customers are eating, drinking, laughing and having a good time, choking is a real threat, and an obstructed airway can lead to a cardiac event. “In those cases where the heart is beating irregularly, this piece of equipment will save lives,” he says.