Steel worker’s life saved by lone safety device, AED and quick reactions of colleagues

On Friday 24th May, Blackline Safety’s in-house Safety Operations Centre responded when a man suffered cardiac arrest while working alone. The G7c device was assigned to a worker at a leading steel supplier on the east coast of the United States. Blackline’s live alerting triggered a co-worker to jump into action, using an automated external defibrillator (AED) while his G7c safety wearable enabled Blackline to despatch emergency services.   

“Thank goodness for both devices,” said the organisation’s HR Manager. “If we didn’t have the Blackline device and the AED, I don’t think [our employee] would be alive today. This goes to show the importance of having both lone worker devices and AEDs in place.”

Working alone in a saw house, the employee suffered cardiac arrest, causing him to fall and strike his head, triggering G7c’s fall alert. At 12:22 pm MDT, Blackline’s Safety Operations Centre (SOC) received a fall detected and SOS alert. Seconds later, the organisation’s operations manager received a text message, informing her of the potential incident. While she headed to the worker’s location, Blackline’s SOC agent called the worker’s G7c wearable with built-in speakerphone without response.

The supervisor arrived at the user’s location and she found the worker unconscious and asked a delivery driver, who just arrived, to fetch the AED. At 12:24 pm, Blackline’s SOC agent placed a second call to the supervisor’s mobile phone who answered, frantically requesting emergency assistance before the call disconnected. The supervisor began performing CPR on the injured worker while Blackline immediately dispatched local police and emergency services to the user’s location. At 12:56 pm, SOC agents received an update that emergency services had arrived and were providing treatment to the unconscious worker. Soon thereafter, he was taken to hospital and has since been released and is on the way to recovery. 

“Our SOC agents are highly trained and respond to incidents in seconds,” said Inna Rabkin, Director of Global Safety Operations at Blackline Safety. “In situations such as this one, a matter of minutes can make the difference and improve an employee’s outcome. We’re proud to have made a dramatic impact in this scenario and appreciate the efficient actions of our SOC agents and the on-site responders.”

G7c wearables feature integrated connectivity, linking workers in the field to a live monitoring center who can quickly send help to the user’s location in the event of an emergency. AEDs are devices that diagnose and treat cardiac arrythmias in the field. An individual’s chance of survival decreases by seven to ten percent for every minute that passes without defibrillation. 

Blackline’s G7 devices provide comprehensive live-monitoring and connected gas detection capability. Each G7 device is completely customisable for every application and features real-time alerting, providing situational awareness that allows teams to respond to situations instantly. Blackline is also the only connected safety vendor in the world to provide users with the option of employee monitoring through a 24/7 in-house live Safety Operations Centre.