Patent ID: 7930023

Claim:
An external defibrillator, comprising: a battery; defibrillation circuitry housed within an enclosure having an exterior, the defibrillation circuitry powered by the battery including a computer having programming to initiate and run recurring self-tests, which include at least some portion of the defibrillation circuitry and to perform a rescue, the self-tests occurring at intervals and capable of determining an operational status of the external defibrillator, a switch for a user to switch the external defibrillator from OFF to ON, wherein ON activates the defibrillation circuitry and its associated programming to perform a rescue, and OFF does not activate the defibrillation circuitry and its associated programming to perform a rescue but allows self tests to be conducted; an active status indicator comprising a light source that illuminates, the light source operated by the programming running on the computer, wherein the light source has a first illumination continually to indicate to an observer that the external defibrillator is OFF and that the most recent self-test has determined that the operational status is normal and thus the external defibrillator is ready to operate normally when turned ON and that presently maintenance is not required.