CPR can buy a little time for victims, but it won t restart the heart. A device called a defibrillator must be used. The defibrillator gives the heart muscle an electric shock, hopefully jump-starting the electrical activity into a normal rhythm. When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, minutes count. For every minute that passes without defibrillation, survival decreases by about ten percent.
Defibrillators are common devices in hospital emergency rooms and some ambulance squads.
But a patient can die before help arrives on the scene. The new defibrillators are battery-operated and about the size of a large book. Oxygen units are often placed with the defibrillators to provide life-saving oxygen when the lungs aren t pulling in air. As soon as the AED is turned on, the device gives out written and audible instructions for use. The responder simply needs to attach the pads to the victim s chest and follow the instructions.