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Healthy Aging Current Topics in Healthy Aging

Saving Lives with the Help of Machines

Summary & Participants

Automated External Defibrillators have revolutionized emergency cardiac care.

Medically Reviewed On: August 04, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: This little device has revolutionized emergency cardiac care.

Scott Caruthers, AED and CPR Instructor : There can be no argument. This is a fact like gravity, that when you place an AED in a facility or in a community, by definition, that facility or community is safer.

ANNOUNCER: An automated external defibrillator - or A-E-D - places the technology of the emergency room into the hands of everyday people. The machine analyzes a person's heart rhythm. If it's unstable, the A-E-D can deliver an electric shock to restore a normal heart beat.

Scott Caruthers, AED and CPR Instructor : The heart is shaking uselessly in the chest, and when defibrillated, it'll cause the heart to stop. And then, when the heart contracts again, it should remember what its job is and it should continue to beat properly, causing the circulation of oxygen-rich blood to the heart, lungs and brain.

ANNOUNCER: But A-E-D's don't take the place of cardio pulmonary resuscitation. Sometimes CPR is still needed to save a life - classes like this teach you to recognize those circumstances.

Scott Caruthers, AED and CPR Instructor: It's a tango. Sometimes the person doing CPR will be of paramount importance, where the heart needs to be revitalized, re-imbued with oxygen-rich blood. And then only will it be able to receive and convert that electrical shock into a life-sustaining rhythm.

ANNOUNCER: The American Heart Association estimates that automated electronic defibrillators could save as many as 50,000 lives a year if they were more widely used. Experts say learning how to use them is simple.

Scott Caruthers, AED and CPR Instructor : The machine is smarter than we are. It's a doc in the box. You simply react to the prompts provided you by this machine.

Vijay Luthra, AED & CPR Class Participant: Even if you were using it for the first time, I think it would -- it would kind of walk you through it.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on today's Once Daily.