Originally Posted By: NobodySpecial
>Desperado
It wouldn't be my first safety purchase for a remote job site.
But Amazon are selling them for home use for $1300. The ads are a little dishonest, a big scary chart showing how cardiac arrest kills twice as many people as all other accidents - true but an AED doesn't help for most sudden cardiac arrests.

That statement is somewhat inaccurate.

While some people who suffer sudden cardiac death are simple dead right then and nothing is going to change that, the initial rhythm in many sudden cardiac is a rhythm that is "shockable" and thus an AED would be beneficial. While good quality CPR (especially CCC-CPR) has been shown to be extremely effective in sudden cardiac death, its effectiveness is maintaining or returning the heart to a state where defibrilation is effective (or more effective). Continuous Compressions do this by maintaining a good blood pressure with uninterrupted chest compressions and circulating the oxygen that was in the blood already at the time of collapse. This is also why CCC-CPR and AEDs are less or ineffective on Traumatic and other non-cardiac arrests.

Quote:
AED doesn't necessarily help people with an otherwise normal healthy heart that have a cardiac attack from an accident (or too many burgers) they only help people who get an irregular heart rhythm.
So they are more likely to be needed in a public place with a large cross-section of random people than a job site with otherwise healthy people who might have a heart attack.


Someone who has "too many burgers" doesn't have a healthy heart. While I will agree that sometimes these individuals are not savable, they are the people an AED will help. Yes the likely hood of using an AED is minimal, but there is a reason they are so many cardiac arrest saves in Las Vegas at Casino's, because they have AEDs and security knows how to use them with effective CPR... one of my paramedic students is alive today because of this.


Edited by Alan_Romania (10/16/09 01:23 AM)
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"Trust in God --and press-check. You cannot ignore danger and call it faith." -Duke