With all the talk concerning AEDs many employees have one question;

AED is an acronym for Automated External Defibrillator. These are devices that are used to administer an electrical shock to a heart that is in "fibrillation". Now what is fibrillation you ask?? Webster’s defines fibrillation as "a muscular twitching involving individual muscle fibers acting without coordination." Unlike a properly operating heart that contracts with rhythmic beats to supply the body with oxygenated blood, a fibrillating heart simply quivers and shakes. Although the fibrillating heart is still moving its erratic quivering cannot pump blood. This causes a person whose heart is in fibrillation to become unconscious and have no pulse. (Remember a pulse is due to blood being pumped from the heart and a fibrillating heart is not pumping anything.)

So where does the AED come in??? Well, when a persons heart goes into fibrillation the heart can no longer pump blood to critical organs such as the brain, liver, kidneys, and the heart itself. CPR helps buy time by supplying the heart and brain with a minimum amount of oxygen to keep those organs viable. The AED is used to "shock" the heart back into a normal rhythm and allow it to resume pumping blood throughout the entire body. This shock and the return of the heart to a normal rhythm is known as defibrillation. While this does not necessarily solve the cause of the fibrillation, such as a heart attack, it does keep the person and his other vital organs alive until advanced medical treatment can arrive.

Don’t Paramedics have AEDs?? Why do we have one here?? We have an AED on site due to the one item we can not control: TIME. A person’s chance of survival from fibrillation depends upon the amount of time that goes by until the heart can be returned to a normal rhythm and deliver oxygenated blood to the body. During cardiac arrest, every second counts. The faster CPR and defibrillation (from the AED) are administered the better the persons chance of survival. Every minute that goes by without defibrillation that chance of survival decreases nearly 10% PER MINUTE. If defibrillation is not administered within 10 minutes from the onset of the fibrillation a person’s chance of survival drops to < 1%.

You’ve sold me! So how big is this AED?? In a word, SMALL. The AED is a little larger than a typical hardback novel and weighs just over 7 pounds. It is also equipped with a shoulder strap to allow it to easily be transported to the victim.

Small, lightweight, and a lifesaver; the next thing you will tell me is even a kid could use it, right?? Well, not exactly, but almost! The AED is very easy to use and is done in conjunction with standard CPR. Utilizing sensors in the electrodes it analyzes the waveform from a person’s heart to determine if the person is experiencing fibrillation. This also prevents the machine from shocking someone who is not in fibrillation. If a shock is not needed, the AED won’t give it! The machine itself has just two buttons and uses voice prompts to tell you what to do. Examples of such voice prompts are "Shock not advised" and "Check breathing; if no pulse give CPR". Also, the Training on the AED takes just 2 hours.