The Federal Aviation Administration said it will consider relaxing its policy that forbids defibrillators in air traffic control centers.
That's good news to Melissa Ott, the controllers union president at the FAA facility in Oberlin where 170 of the 428 controllers are older than 40. Defibrillators restore normal heartbeat by applying a brief electric shock.
Ott asked management to move the portable device from a nearby medical trailer into the facility about two months ago and was soundly rejected.
"The local manager said they were told by Washington that we could not have one in the control room because of liability issues, whatever that means," she said.
The medical trailer is closed on nights and weekends and is only open sporadically during the week. Ott said that if someone had a heart attack while the trailer was open, it would still take a long time to run to the trailer, pick up the unit and carry it back.
When asked earlier this week about the nationwide policy that bans the devices, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell is considering changing the policy.
"No final decision has been made," she said in an e-mail. "The matter is still under review. We're in the process of determining the cost to buy, install and train personnel for 500-plus facilities. We're also examining the liability issues."
Darrell Meachum, National Air Traffic Controllers Association's southwest regional vice president, said he is skeptical, noting that Sturgell told him the same thing - in 2004.
He said he met with Sturgell in March 2006 after Houston Center controller John Sanfelippo died of a heart attack at the center.
"At the close of the meeting, Mr. Sturgell told me, 'Darrell, we will look into it,' " Meachum said. "That was more than a year ago."
NATCA spokesman Doug Church said that after Sanfelippo's death, a union official bought a portable defibrillator and took it to the Houston facility. He was ordered to remove it by FAA officials. Church knows of no air traffic control facility that has a unit.
Ironically, since 2001 the FAA has insisted defibrillators be installed in airports and on airplanes.
In 2000, the president signed legislation requiring the secretary of Health and Human Services to develop guidelines to place external defibrillators in federal buildings.
Locally, Lakewood has installed 22 defibrillators in many public buildings, including City Hall, Lakewood High School, the Winterhurst Ice Rink and the local YMCA since 2001.
"These are very important life-saving devices," said city spokeswoman Mary Coleman. "It's a great feeling to know that they are there if someone has a heart attack."
Rep. John Kline, a Minnesota Republican, sent a letter Oct. 10 asking Sturgell to overturn "a poor decision made by the FAA" and allow a defibrillator to be installed inside Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center in Farmington, Minn.
"They are forced to keep this life-saving equipment in the neighboring union office," he said in the letter. The time necessary to retrieve the defibrillator "could literally be the difference between life and death for an FAA employee in cardiac arrest."
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