Why YSK: TV has lied to you. If a cardiac arrest happens and you have an AED defibrillator at hand you might still need to do chest compressions.
- When you open up the AED there will be instructions on how to apply the electrodes as well as any other procedure needed to get started.
- The machine will first analyze the heart’s rhythm to find out if a shock can restore the heart.
- If the machine doesn’t find anything it will instruct you to perform CPR. After a while it will then instruct you to stand by as it does another analysis.
- It will once again either deliver a shock or instruct you to go back to CPR. Do this routine indefinitely until medical services has arrived. You will be tired. Switch out with another person if there are other people who can help.
- Some AED’s are automatic and will warn you to stand back and deliver a shock. Others will need you to press a button to deliver the shock yourself. Make sure not to touch the person as the machine delivers the shock.
Not a doctor but I think AEDs can only fix an arhythmic pulse as is the case when ventricular fibrillation occurs.
The other thing they don’t say during cpr class is that the resuscitation rate for an out of hospital cardiac arrest is 9.1%.
One of the biggest factors in survivability is the time to initiate CPR in the time the compressions are interrupted. My EMS department has moved away from a AHA to high performance CPR. 
It’s concerning how there is no AED/CPR training in school considering everyone is likely to run into a situation where a family member will need resuscitation while waiting for an ambulance. Not knowing when and how to do cpr, how to use a defibrillator (portable ones give audio instructions) etc is so dangerous because by the time an ambulance gets there it may be too late. Also I wish AED were more readily available and easily located. May even be a good idea to pitch in with neighbors and make a locked box that’s easily accessible.
In School here in Germany, what this post outlines is exactly what was told to us, by actual paramedics.
They even had a dummy AED for demonstration purposes. It spoke out the instructions like a real one would and we were all supposed to practice putting the electrodes in the right places on a dummy human.
Here, in the Netherlands, we have a network of civilian first responders, with people that will be alarmed by the 112 (for you Americans: that’s the European version of 911) call center when a CPR request is near them. Also, we have a practical full cover over the country of AEDs. We have one against our front wall, accessible for everyone. In 1.5 years of time, I got two times a call that I was able to respond to, but our emergency services were already present when I arrived (by bike) on the location.
I’d say this information will come as a shock to many but apparently it won’t!
I’ve heard this before and looked it up, but I found this article from the NIH that contradicts what you’re saying.
Defibrillators are devices that send an electric pulse or shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat. They are used to prevent or correct an arrhythmia, an uneven heartbeat that is too slow or too fast. If the heart suddenly stops, defibrillators can also help it beat again.
There are certain devices that do do that, but it’s not a defibrillator. A defibrillator will stop/prevent an arrhythmia by stopping the heart, and letting it restart on its own (hoping that it goes to a normal rhythm), and delivering further shocks if it gets back into one.
The device you’re looking for to help a heart beat again would be a pacer, or a pacemaker, which will shock the heart to force it to pump, and restore rhythm that way. They’re commonly used for conditions like heart failure, if the heartbeat generation systems/internal pacemaker can’t generate a heartbeat quickly enough to sustain life.
The way a defibrillator works with a stopped heart is by analysing, and it that way it does “help it beat again”. But it won’t shock a stopped heart. The name says it all; it de-fibrillates. The heart has to be fibrillating for it to be de-fibrillated; the shock can only correct an archaic rythmn, not the absence of rythmn.
If there’s no electric activity, the person needs meds like epinephrine, not a shock.
The thing with TV shows, is that they often show a flat line on an ECG monitor and then shock the patient, which is basically useless except at burning the patient’s skin and stopping effective compressions during CPR. The kind of ECG we should see during a shock is atrial fribrillation (a-fib) and ventricular fibrillation (v-fib). Those should have a very wavy ECG line.
Source: am nurse (edit: a better nurse corrected me on some differences between shocking for a defibrillation and for a cardioversion, go read their comment)
Just to clarify your post because there is enough confusion as it is. Atrial fibrillation is not a rhythm we defibrillate. While it can be dangerous it is not a deadly rhythm but could definitely deteriorate into one if there is unchecked rapid ventricular response. Even then we don’t defib afib, we cardiovert it or use medical management. Underneath the mess there is an intrinsic heart beat you don’t want to disturb. If you defib afib you will likely cause more harm than good
The only rhythms we defibrillate are ventricular fibrillation and pulseless vtach.
We do not use any electricity for asystole or pulseless electrical activity.
We cardiovert afib and supraventricular tachycardia.
Shock is a term used loosely but I wanted to further clarify so people won’t run around shaking their fist that no one is defibrillating their afib.
Source: also nurse