(1) The 'fibs & vibes" around AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator)

The first successful use of defibrillation on a person was in 1947, by Dr. Claude Beck of Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in Cleveland. His experimental device required a large transformer and delivered AC current directly to the exposed heart of a 14-year old boy, who was undergoing surgery when he suffered cardiac arrest.

Time is of the essence when a heart stops. For every minute that passes without a heartbeat, the patient’s chance of survival drops by up to 10 percent. Even if a properly trained bystander immediately starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), rapidly compressing the patient’s chest to force blood around the body, survival rates will still decline 5 percent per minute. To actually have a chance to save the person, you must restore the heart’s normal sinus rhythm, and this is where AEDs come in.

Sudden cardiac arrest is most often caused by ventricular fibrillation, when the heart’s lower chambers stop beating and instead quiver rapidly and irregularly. AEDs detect this distinctive quivering and then deliver one or more electric shocks. The shocks cause the heart’s muscle cells to contract simultaneously, interrupting the disorganized spasms and, if all goes well, rebooting the malfunctioning organ. 

Note: When an AED detects a flatlined heart, it won't deliver a shock! You will have to continue with CPR until medics arrive and can take over.

Note: Sudden cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. In a heart attack, blood can’t flow properly to the heart but the muscle itself keeps beating, so sufferers typically remain conscious. In cardiac arrest, the heart’s pumping mechanism—an electrochemically choreographed affair—becomes deranged, so that the many motions of the various parts no longer work together to pump any blood. With no blood flowing to the lungs or brain, victims rapidly lose consciousness.

#becauseitsaveslives #fab #firstaid #aed