An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can stop an irregular rhythm and allow a normal rhythm to resume in a heart in sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is an abrupt loss of heart function. If it’s not treated within minutes, it quickly leads to death.
Frequently Asked Questions
Known Facts
- An AED will only administer a shock for two types of abnormal heart rhythms: ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
- An AED will not shock someone who does not need a shock. An AED is designed to only shock ventricular fibrillation (VF). It will not shock any other heart rhythm. Nevertheless, AEDs are not perfect and in 1% of cases it may shock a rhythm other than VF. That’s why it should only be attached to a person who is unconscious and has collapsed.
- For every minute without life-saving CPR and defibrillation, chances of survival decrease by 7 to 10%.
- Only 8% of victims who suffer from SCA (Sudden Cardiac Arrest) outside of a hospital setting survive.
- SCA (Sudden Cardiac Arrest) strikes without warning
- There are 1,900 to 14,200 cases of out of hospital SCA in children each year.
- Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the leading cause of cardiac related death in the United States.
- Early defibrillation with an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) and CPR can more than double chances of survival.
- 64% of Americans have never seen an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) machine.
- 50% of men and 63% of women fall victim to SCA without any prior symptoms of heart problems.
- An AED can still be used on someone with a pacemaker.
- The American Heart Association estimates that 20,000 to 100,000 Sudden Cardiac Arrest deaths could be prevented if defibrillation was readily available.
