Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightengale212
I am a former ER nurse, CPR and paramedic instructor which has given me lots of experience on this topic and I am going to suggest to you before you get a NO AED tatt on your chest you may want watch a few videos on youtube to see how an AED actually works. In brief, it is the AED not the responder that determines if you are in ventricular fibrillation and the machine gives the responder voice commands to shock or not to shock. Ventricular fibrillation is the ONLY rhythm and reason which defibrillation is indicated be it determined by an AED machine or a paramedic.
Our hearts are muscles and the mechanism that causes them to pump is electrical. When someone is in ventricular fibrillation they still have electrical activity but it is chaotic and will not cause the heart to pump, but is still in a electrically receptive state for which receiving a shock can often convert the heart to an electrical rhythm that will restore pump action. The time someone is in venticular fibrillation is very brief so seconds count. If V-fib is not reversed then asystole (flat line) follows which is no electrical activity and is extremely difficult to reverse especially if a significant amount of heart muscle damage has taken place.
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Excellent post. You beat me to it. At the risk of muddying the waters I'll just add that unless they have changed things the last few years, V-fib and V-tach are the two rhythms that the AED reads and will shock. The main point you are making that folks need to realize is that the AED reads the heart rhythm and makes the call.....not the rescuer. Time is heart muscle folks, that is why the use of an AED trumps CPR and should be attached to any unresponsive person ASAP. For the record as a former career firefighter/medic/NYS EMS Instructor I have done CPR and used both automatic and manual AEDS many times with sometimes excellent outcomes. And since I'm in The Villages everyday doing inspections, if I ever go down and become unresponsive, PLEASE use the AED on me.....thank you.