100 Stockholm taxis to be equipped with AED’s
Through a collaboration between city hospital services and the city’s taxi fleet, more than 100 taxis in Stockholm, Sweden, will be equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) so they can be dispatched to assist victims of sudden cardiac arrest. With taxis throughout the city, in many cases one will be able to reach the location of an emergency more quickly than an ambulance that has to be dispatched from a centralized station.
“Every minute that passes reduces the chance of survival without any lasting injury by 10 percent,” the head of a Stockholm emergency rescue service told the press.
Taxi drivers have been trained to use the AEDs. “It’s incredibly easy,” was the way one of them described it. “You just lift the lid, push the on-off button, and it starts giving you instructions.”