AED

Usually if a person experiences any medical condition, people call the emergency services and wait for them to arrive to take care of the victim. The same approach if followed during a sudden cardiac arrest can reduce the chances of survival of the victim by a great margin.

In sudden cardiac arrest, the first few minutes are extremely important and the victim has to be given treatment with the help of a defibrillator within the first four minutes of the arrest, after which the chances of survival drop by ten percent every minute. Thus, it is an extremely critical condition and needs immediate attention.

Usually paramedics and EMT’s are among the first people to arrive, and though they are extensively trained, they might not know to operate an AED which is required for defibrillation purposes. Also, they might arrive a bit late on the scene, because of constraints such as traffic, long travel distance and other factors.

As it is not possible to wait for the anyone during an emergency, it is recommended that AED’s be placed at all public places and training be given to all people to help increase the number of survivors of this condition.