Patent ID: 8224441

Claim:
An external defibrillator, comprising: a battery; defibrillation circuitry housed within an enclosure having an exterior, the defibrillation circuitry powered by the battery and including a computer having programming to conduct autonomous, recurring self-tests, which include at least some portion of the defibrillation circuitry, and to perform a rescue, the self-tests 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 places the external defibrillation circuitry and its associated programming in a standby status permitting self-tests to be conducted but not a rescue; and an active status indicator comprising a first light source that illuminates, the first light source operated by the programming running on the computer, wherein when the external defibrillator is OFF and the most recent self-test has determined that the external defibrillator operational status is normal, the first light source blinks frequently to indicate that the defibrillator is ready for use.