Everyone knows that walking is good for the heart.

But when Marilyn Steede set out on her annual 24-hour walk for charity on March 25 it wasn't her own heart she was thinking about.

Her goal was to raise $10,000 to allow the Bermuda Heart Foundation to buy Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) for life-saving emergencies. So far she has raised $7,000 towards the purchase of the devices and wants to raise more.

"I never give myself any amount to aim for, but obviously the more I raise the better," Ms Steede said.

"The reason I did it this year was to assist the Bermuda Heart Foundation to purchase and place public access defibrillators in as many venues as possible. They help to save lives in the event of a heart attack and are really important because they can keep someone alive until emergency services get there."

So what are Automatic External Defibrillators and why are they so important?

According to the Foundation, 85 percent of sudden deaths are caused by ventricular rhythms during cardiac arrest and as time is critical in saving lives the defibrillators are a necessity. The defibrillators will be placed in locations around the Island and this in turn will help the emergency medical technicians to have better recovery rates.

"The device analyses the cardiac rhythm and if it is a shock-able rhythm it will say, 'shock advised ? stand clear'. Some models will go directly it and some ask you to press a button," said Dr. Roslyn Bascombe-Adams, assistant director of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's emergency department.

"But the first thing you do is to turn the device on and it will tell you what to do. It will tell you to apply the pads, analysing rhythm and stand clear if it is a shock-able rhythm or no shock advised if the rhythm is not.

"If it says 'no shock advised', CPR must be initiated, which is what the training is actually for. Because this is only one tool and the training is what to do in case this doesn't shock, because it is not every time someone collapses that they need a shock."

"It is basically a little computer that is programmed to analyse ventricular fibrillation, which is a type of electrical beat that the heart goes into in some situations. Every minute that a patient is in ventricular fibrillation and doesn't get a shock, they lose a ten percent chance of recovering."

Norma Smith, nurse and vice president of the Bermuda Heart Foundation, added: "This was why the devices are needed out in the community.

"Because for every minute it takes for the emergency medical technicians to get there it lessens the patient's chances. The machine is so smart that it has to advise you on whether you are going to give someone a shock or not, and it will not allow you to shock someone who is not in cardiac arrest. You assess the person yourself to see that they are unresponsive and what they are usually in is called fibrillation and we try to shock it back to normal."

She pointed out that the AED device was used on a basketball player recently.

"There were a lot of news stories about the defibrillators and there was a basketball player in the States who collapsed on the court and they had the AED right there," she said.

"If you can get someone to shock them within the first four minutes, their chances of survival are much greater."

Essentially, when a person goes into ventricular fibrillation the heart is no longer able to put out a pulse, Dr. Bascombe-Adams revealed.

"It basically means that the muscles of the heart are all contracted, which means that there is no output and the brain doesn't get any blood," she said.

"Every minute that you do not restore that means that the chances of recovery are less and less."

Nurse Tamra Broadley, of the Clinical Education Medical Programme, added the life saving capabilities of these devices is why the Bermuda Heart Foundation is trying to get them out.

"When people have been taught CPR, they are also taught what else to look for because someone may collapse and it may be a gamut of other reasons, but you need to get it on its way," she said.

Because, in the cycle of helping someone, you assess them and then initiate the response call to 911, to get help on its way.

"If these are in places in the community like at the (Bermuda International) airport then someone can at least go and get it. Then the more advanced machine than this will be on its way in the ambulance."

Ms Smith said this is the first time that the Bermuda Heart Foundation has been able to do something in the community other than blood pressure screenings.

"(Before) Marilyn Steede's 24-hour walk we were not able to do this," said an appreciative Ms Smith, "And this very much falls within our mandate."

In the meantime, they are looking at the most effective venues to place the devices.

"I don't want to say, 'well, I'll just put it at my church'. They have to be strategically placed, because I didn't know that we had so many out there before now," said Ms Smith.

The important thing is to make sure that the devices, which cost between $2,000 and $5,000, are placed where there will be a high density of people, added Dr. Bascombe-Adams.

"Some functions are likely to rock the emotions," she said.

"Churches, casinos, airports and anywhere that you have a congregation of people engaging in excitable situations, or the elderly.

"You want to have it in a location where you can quickly access it and usually with a phone nearby as well, because when the layperson starts to use this they should also activate the emergency response service.

"So it is important that the Emergency Response Service be a part of the distribution of these, so they know where they are located and when a 911 call comes in they can say where it is.

"Because if you shock the patient and manage to bring him back, you still have to manage the patient. It is not the be all and end all."

To make a donation before May 31 send cheques made payable to Bermuda Heart Foundation to Marilyn Steede, PO Box SN 614, Southampton SN BX. Anyone interested in walking next year should call 238-3358.