Defibrillators: Understanding Benefits, Types & How They Work

Defibrillators are devices that are used to send electricity to the heart of a person to reset the heart to a normal pattern under abnormal heart conditions. Defibrillators are used by the medical community and by trained laymen outside of the hospital environment.

Function

• Defibrillators use an electrical current to reset the heart's contractions to a normal beat during abnormal heart conditions, such as during cardiac arrest.

Types

• There are different types of defibrillators: external and internal. Automated external defibrillators are the most common type of defibrillators that are seen in public places.

Benefits

• According to the American Red Cross, 60,000 of the 300,000 sudden cardiac arrest deaths in America could have been prevented with a properly trained individual using a defibrillator.

Warning

• Four percent of the people who have implanted defibrillators have had complications, such as blood clots or the movement of the cable that connects the defibrillator to the heart.

Prevention/Solution

• AEDs avoid sending excessive and unnecessary electrical currents to a patient's heart by detecting the person's heart beat and making sure it is at a rhythm that requires an electrical shock to improve.