Posted on 12/12/2009

SAN DIEGO -- A man who came to San Diego for heart surgery
credits a special device for helping save his life.

Sudden cardiac arrest kills about 50 people an hour in the
U.S., according to medical research, and Kirk Miller of Riverside County was
almost a victim.

“I was sitting at the kitchen table with my wife having
coffee, just visiting,” Miller said. Out of nowhere, he said, he suddenly
blacked out and keeled over.

“It is very scary; I was terrified,” said Miller's wife,
Joan.

Kirk Miller survived this episode because he was wearing a
device called the LifeVest, which is essentially a wearable defibrillator.
Miller is the first Southern California resident to be saved by the device.

"If I hadn't had this device on I would either be seriously
brain damaged or dead,” said Miller.

Joan Miller, a flight attendant trained in CPR, said her
first aid skills may not have been enough to save her husband.

“The minute it shocked, probably less than a minute for all
this to happen and he was back conscious again,” said Joan Miller. When Kirk
Miller came to, he said he wondered why he was on the floor next to the dog's
water bowl.

Kirk Miller’s heart and arteries were in very bad shape when
he arrived at Scripps Green Hospital in Torrey Pines, but even after surgery,
heart specialist Dr. Thomas Heywood said, “He needed an implanted defibrillator
like what (former) Vice President (Dick) Cheney had, but it was too soon to put
it in.” Miller was then fitted to wear the LifeVest.

The device not only shocks the heart, but it records and
sends data back to the doctor, according to medical experts.

“I wasn't all that hot about it because I had to wear it 24
hours a day,” said Miller.

But Miller acknowledged he would not be around if it weren't
for the device.

“This device worked. It did its job and saved my life,” said
Miller.

Scripps Green, Scripps Memorial and the University of
California, San Diego Medical Center offers the device through Medicare or
Medicaid.

The device is credited with saving nearly 300 lives since it
was first used on the East Coast five years ago.

SOURCE:  KGTV

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