Automated External Defibrillators – Why Everyone Needs an AED at Home

Feb. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- Imagine you are at home with your family and a loved one falls to the ground unresponsive. They have just suffered from sudden cardiac arrest. Do you have anything in your home that would help them until medical workers arrived? What if this happened at your workplace? Would you be able to do anything to help out in either of these terrifying, life threatening situations? If you had an Automated External Defibrillator you would be able to step in and potentially save a life.

Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, are small portable defibrillators designed for use by non-medical persons. AEDs are easy to use, with many having voice cues, lights and written messages to help the user. Because of their lifesaving abilities, more and more, these devices are being sold for in-home and office use. The AED works by sending an electric shock to the victim’s heart. The person administering the AED would attach electro pads to the victim's chest and be prompted as to what to do by the device itself. The electric shock would briefly stop all the electrical activity in the victim's heart. This would allow the heart to restart, hopefully correcting the irregular electrical activity, or ventricular fibrillation.

While sudden cardiac arrest can happen anywhere to anyone, there are a few risk factors such as: coronary heart disease that runs in the family, smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, previous hear attack and age - over 45 for men and over 55 for women. There are no warning signs of an impending cardiac arrest such as pain in chest, but the symptoms of a cardiac arrest include unresponsiveness and no normal breathing pattern.

How will you know if an Automated External Defibrillator should be used on a person? What if they are not suffering from cardiac arrest, but something else? An AED will check a person's heart rhythm and will let the administrator know if the AED shock is needed.

Automated External Defibrillators are not just for adults. Children can benefit from AEDs as well. If the child is under eight, there are special pads called pediatric attenuated pads that can be purchased and stored with AED.

The electrical shock should be administered within three to five minutes of the victim's collapse. Although all emergency medical workers Automated External Defibrillators, it would be almost impossible for them to reach a victim in this amount of time. What if an AED was available in every home and office? The number of deaths from sudden cardiac arrest would dramatically decrease.

Along with using an at home Automated External Defibrillator, calling emergency medical services is a must. A person who has suffered sudden cardiac arrest will need to go to the hospital and have medical services performed.

According to the American Red Cross, ‘In the past year, approximately 250,000 Americans died of sudden cardiac arrest.’ Imagine how that number would go down if every home and business had an Automated External Defibrillator in it. Look into purchasing an AED for your home or office today.

For more information on AED, AEDs, automated external defibrillators and AED for your home visit to http://www.americanaed.com