Over a decade ago, MARTA installed 100 automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in all 38 of its rail stations. The installations were part of “Project Jumpstart,” an initiative to save the lives of riders experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.
Now, defibrillators in more than half of all MARTA stations have been relocated, officials with the transit agency told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That’s forcing riders to call MARTA police to access the devices in an emergency where survival rates can hinge on every minute.
The defibrillators were initially installed in publicly accessible emergency cabinets along MARTA concourses, in white and blue boxes marked with the universal sign for the devices, a heart with a lightning bolt. But since 2023, at least a fifth of the devices have been moved and sealed inside rail station staff rooms.
MARTA said they moved some of the defibrillators because the devices were being stolen. Two years ago, there were 12 thefts within a single month, the agency said.
The thefts have prompted increased security measures. At the Lindbergh Center station, for instance, a sign above the box warns it is “under video surveillance! Violators will be prosecuted.”
Inside the box, there is a note instead of a defibrillator. It instructs anyone who needs the device to call MARTA police officers, who can retrieve it from a staff room.
It’s unclear how often MARTA’s defibrillators have been used. The agency did not answer questions asking about their usage numbers.
Dr. Divya Gupta, the board president of the American Heart Association in metro Atlanta and a cardiologist at Emory Healthcare, said the defibrillators needed to be readily available to be effective.
“The whole point is higher survival for people who need them,” Gupta said. “They should be accessible to people at any time.”
Defibrillators in at least 20 stations have been relocated to staff areas, spokesperson Angela Jetty said. A survey by the AJC found that at least one more station, Lindbergh Center, was missing a device from its box but was not included in the list MARTA provided.
Defibrillators remain in public cabinets at MARTA’s Five Points station, one of the busiest locations in the transit system, according to MARTA’s list. At the Airport station, one defibrillator inside the fare gates has been removed from its cabinet. A second defibrillator just outside of the gates is accessible and within a few hundred feet of two others maintained by the airport.
The list of stations MARTA provided where defibrillators had been relocated did not include the airport station.
Surveillance monitoring and recent theft attempts are used to determine whether to keep a defibrillator in a cabinet or staff room, Jetty said.
“In stations where AEDs are in publicly accessible areas, appropriate monitoring measures are in place to help deter and prevent such thefts,” Jetty wrote in an email to the AJC.
Several years ago, MARTA police officers were recognized by the Red Cross for using AEDs and CPR to save the lives of two men who went into cardiac arrest within an hour at the same train station.
According to studies, survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest decrease by around 10% for every minute that early defibrillation is delayed. The first few minutes after sudden cardiac arrest are also the most critical: After three minutes without defibrillation, survival rates can drop from around 74% to 49%.
Jetty said MARTA is working toward moving the defibrillators sealed in staff rooms into “more secure” cabinets. MARTA police vehicles are also equipped with defibrillators.
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