What is the Purpose of an AED?

AED’s or Automated External Defibrillator are used to spot abnormal rhythms in a person’s heart beat and administer an electric shock in an attempt to return the heart back to a normal and effective beating rhythm. They are most useful for a victim of cardiac arrest, where the heart stops beating effectively enough to circulate blood throughout the body.

How does it work?

An Automated External Defibrillator monitors the rhythm of the heart beat for arrhythmias, which are abnormalities in the rhythm of the beating of the heart. Arrhythmias can lead to cardiac arrest which is when the heart will stop beating effectively, stopping the flow of blood within a person. For people who are experiencing arrhythmias, most likely after cardiac arrest has occurred, an AED is attached to a person via adhesive pads and monitors the rhythm of the heart. The AED will then determine when to administer an electric shock to the person’s in an attempt to restore the heart back to a normal and effective beating rhythm. AED’s can also include voice prompts as well as a visual aid for the person utilizing the product. The device will prompt the user when to administer the shock and in some models the device will administer the shock on its own.

Benefits of AED

The biggest benefit of the >Automated External Defibrillator is that it can be life saving to a person suffering from cardiac arrest and arrhythmias. AED’s are also much easier to use than a traditional defibrillator because of the way that the machine itself will instruct a person how to use it, monitor the heart beat of the person, and determine when to administer an electric shock, as well as in some cases automatically administer the electric shock to the person in need.   [caption id="attachment_83" align="alignleft" width="193"]AED AED[/caption]           Michael Butto