The Wall Street Journal this weekend ran a story entitled “Beating the Odds: How a gamble on defibrillators turned Las Vegas into the safest place to have your heart give out” (no link – they require an online subscription for access). People at casinos are generally at a higher risk of cardiac arrest because of their age, heavy smoking and drinking while gambling, huge buffets, and sleepless nights at the slots (not to mention the stress of losing lots of money).
The story described how a Las Vegas-based paramedic named Richard Hardman found that 50% of the cardiac arrest episodes his department handled took place at casinos — usually with a casino security officer standing right next to the victim. He launched a campaign to get the casinos to train their security officers in how to use a defibrillator, and had a hard time at first getting past the objections of the lawyers. But he and his partners in this project perservered and succeeded by using several effective methods:
- They partnered with a researcher interested in studying the use of defibrillators by lay people to establish data showing the effectiveness of the program. They did a pilot study with seven casinos to start collecting data.
- They prepared the security guards for success in every possible scenario by acting the role of a collapsed patron in various real-life situations.
- They leveraged their first success story — a man who happened to come into one of the seven pilot study casinos just before going into arrest and was revived with a defibrillator by security officers. When the other casinos saw the publicity that one received, they wanted their staff trained as well.
- They found ways of removing the barriers to adoption of this program — by making sure that casino executives understood that the defibrillator would only work on somebody who was clinically dead with no pulse or breathing function; by lobbying to have the state’s “Good Samaritan” law extended to include users of defibrillators; and by arranging a donation to casinos of about 30 defibrillators.
The study showed that the program was a big success — 53% of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest at casinos survive — compared with the national average survival of well under 10%. When a defibrillator was used within 3 minutes of the collapse — not impossible given the close monitoring that casinos conduct of their patrons — the survival rate increases to 74%. Now every large casino operator owns dozens of defibrillators and trains their employees to use them. In the past nine years, Las Vegas security officers have restored the heartbeats of about 1,800 gamblers and employees in their casinos.
This is an impressive case study of how to get a new product adopted and in widespread use — and by someone who probably did not even realize what he was doing was social marketing.
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
That cello is missing the C string i would change the picture same place same light if you can but with a string. It looks a little funny I’d say. I play the cello too and yeah it is hard work. I can help out any way i can if this comment is too late thats ok a little help is not bad. my email is i-dont-know-a-name@hotmail.com
Just wondering if a fellow celist would like to have some help if needed.