Unlike many other causes of death, the sudden cardiac arrest is seen as the worst as there is no warning and it can strike anyone at any time, whatever they are doing. It’s also a sad fact that the majority of sufferers will die as the emergency team will get there too late due to the minute time frame that exists in which the heart can be restarted successfully. If you aren’t prepared to leave the lives of your loved ones to chance, you need to consider investing in a automated external defibrillator.

How Does Automated External Defibrillator Work?

We all know what defibrillators are, those clever machines with paddles that give the heart an electric shock to restart it after a cardiac arrest. If you haven’t seen one up close you can bet your bottom dollar that you will have seen one on the TV in one of the numerous shows that involve hospitals. The fact that you can now have one of these life savers in your own home has been part of a massive marketing campaign recently, and people are snapping them up.

Maintenance Is Utmost Important

A major concern regarding these heart defibrillators is the maintenance involved, as they need to be primed and ready to do their job at a moments notice. You can’t beat about the bush here; if someone suffers a cardiac arrest then they have a very short time during which their heart can be restarted, so the defibrillator simply cannot fail, period. Thankfully, the home defibrillator has been designed so that it actually needs very little maintenance.

The Battery For The AED

The main component is the battery, which only needs replacing every 2 years or so, and the best machines do constant self tests to make sure they are always good to go. A siren alerts you if there is any kind of malfunction so it can be addressed immediately, thus ensuring that you defibrillator will not let you down when you need it most. Always keep your machine clean and dust free, and acquaint yourself with all the tests that it does so you aren’t caught out.

The instructions that come with a portable defibrillator are clear and concise; you don’t have to worry about them being in medical terms that you won’t understand. The battery will stay charged so that’s its always ready to use, and you will be alerted when this needs changing. The instructions also explain clearly how to check for a pulse as you don’t want to administer an electric shock to a heart that hasn’t stopped beating.

Whilst there are also diagrams showing CPR, a first aid course is advised as this used along with the defibrillator gives the patient the best chance of remaining viable until the paramedics arrive. Make sure that you keep your defibrillator close to hand but out of the way of little ones, as this is not a toy, it is a life saving device, and little fingers pressing buttons can have a detrimental effect on the patient should you need to use it.

Take Good Care of This Investment

These machines are very much an investment, and should be both viewed and maintained as one. In the same way that you would make sure you took care of your car, you must take care of your automatic external defibrillator, and not simply put it in a cupboard and forget about it. If the worst case scenario should happen and somebody suffers a cardiac arrest in your home, you need to have the knowledge that you can give them the best possibility of survival by using your AED on them and restarting their heart.

Forget the old fashioned first aid kits with their Bandaids, antiseptic, tweezers and bandages, if you seriously want to ensure that you have help to hand come the worst possible medical emergency, you need to seriously consider investing around $1500 on a automated external defibrillator. You can’t put a price on life, and when they are there, and available, could you live with your conscience if the worst happened?

By investing today in a AED you get everything you need to become a potential life saver, and that’s priceless. By following the instructions implicitly, and the machine cleverly guiding you to the right position for the paddles, you can be that essential bridge that keeps the patient in this world until the experts arrive, and you really can’t put a price on that.