When someone collapses before your eyes, your first reaction might be stunned disbelief. Your second impulse, though, is likely wanting to help – and you can. By calling an ambulance, starting CPR, having somebody grab the nearest automated external defibrillator and following AED instructions, you could potentially shock the stricken person's heart back to normal rhythm.
Chance of rescue declines with every minute after somebody has a cardiac arrest, says Dr. Clifton Callaway, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh...
The AED is a portable, battery-powered device. It connects to the victim with a pair of pads. You might pass by it every day in your office break room, perched in a wall cabinet with its distinctive bolt-in-a-heart logo.
The AED is used to defibrillate or reverse a potentially fatal, abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation. That's a disturbance of the electrical activity of the heart's lower chambers – which twitch ineffectively instead of pumping correctly – leading to collapse and cardiac arrest. "External" differentiates the AED from permanently implanted defibrillators in people with severe heart disease.
"Automated" is the reassuring part. It's not up to you to determine whether a shock is needed. When you place the two pads on the victim's chest, the AED analyzes the heart rhythm, and the voice guide tells you if a shock is advised.
SOURCE: U.S. News and World Report