Sudden cardiac arrest usually is caused by an abnormal heart rhythm, the most common of which is called ventricular fibrillation. It is a short in the heart's electrical system that causes the heart to quiver, rather than to beat in a controlled fashion. When this occurs, little or no blood is pumped from the heart, and the person loses consciousness very quickly. Death usually occurs if a normal heart rhythm is not restored in less than 10 minutes. Simplified, portable defibrillators have been available for more than a decade.
Advocates are concerned they are being placed in communities too slowly.
Emergency medical personnel were first allowed to use defibrillators in Georgia in 1987. Many other states started using them in the early '80s. Now the more populated, urban areas are moving at a brisker rate. But in the rural parts of Georgia, it hasn't trickled down as well as we would like. Fayette County, McCullough says, was the first fire department in Georgia to put defibrillators on its trucks.