Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Neighborhood AED Costs
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Old 05-07-2025, 10:18 AM
ElDiabloJoe ElDiabloJoe is offline
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Should you be the one that an AED saves, then that $100, $475, or even $1000 for that matter is money happily spent.

As others have said, an AED will only shock a patient for whom a shock is required. The shock defibrillates the heart. Stops the heart from fibrillating (becoming a quivering mass of uselessness). Essentially what that means is that it stops a heart that is quivering in order for it to restart in a regular, sustainable rhythm. It's a reset button for the heart. If the heart isn't quivering, a shock (aka reset) is not useful.

The best thing is immediate CPR, but there are caveats. Forget about the mouth-to-mouth for now, that is secondary.

The purpose of the CPR is to manually circulate blood to the organs, especially the brain. That requires about 100 compressions per minute and they must be deep (adult = 2 to 2.5 inches) enough to be effective.

Of course, that depth will also crack ribs and tear cartilage from the rib cage. It is a sickening sound, but is required for CPR to be effective. The most important thing for CPR is to be continual, the blood pressure must be kept up or else it is useless.

Now, you try pressing 2.5 inches into your sofa cushion 100 times per minute and tell me how many minutes you last. If you last more than 5, I'd be shocked. It is exhausting even after 1 minute. That is the effort required for high success ratios.
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