Heart attacks or cardiac arrest are killers. These killers are often silent and appear with little to no warning. The heart muscle is a unique muscle of the body. The skeletal muscles need direct impulses from the nervous system in order to perform the required duty. The smooth muscles of the body, the ones responsible for breathing and digesting foods, also need impulses from the body. The heart does not need any outside source to tell it when and how to beat. This is the definition for automaticity. The heart has pacemaker cells which work in unison with each other to ensure the complete filling and expulsion of blood with each heartbeat. The heart will beat on its own over 40 million times a year. This is until something convinces the heart to stop working. Poor diet, genetics, cigarette smoking are just a few outside elements which can help to weaken the heart. Even the high energy drinks which make your heart race can cause the heart to enlarge just like a body builders muscles get bigger with each work out. This takes away from the needed elasticity of the heart muscle. When any portion of the heart is outside of normal conditions it threatens the life of the person it is in.
Contrary to television, a flat line, asystole, isn’t when you deliver an electrical shock. Ventricular Fibrillation, the most common rhythm of a cardiac insult, and Ventricular Tachycardia are the only two conditions the heart can tolerate and benefit from an external electrical push. Electricity is needed during these times to help “re-set’ the automatic conduction cells of the heart, preferably the Sino-Atrial Node. External defibrillators are the only device approved for this emergency.
Many different companies make various styles of these important machines. It does not matter the make or the model, all of them are equally important during a cardiac arrest. AED’s or defibrillators are fool proof. Turn them on and they will tell you what to do each step of the way. This is probably the most critical event to happen during an arrest, CPR is not as important as the delivery of the electricity, as long as the defibrillator tells you “shock advised”. Defibrillation’s the one event which may take a quivering heart out of one of the two fatal rhythms. CPR buys time for the defibrillator to arrive and to be attached to the victim.
In a simplistic explanation of what an AED or defibrillator will do is as follows:
After ensuring you are safe and the patient is not wet, turn the device on, some power up once the case has been opened. The defibrillator will tell you to attach pads, then to press analyze. Once a rhythm has been identified it will tell you “shock advised” or “continue CPR.” Make sure no one is touching the victim when you press “analyze” or “shock,” defibrillators will interpret the rhythm incorrectly and will deliver a shock to the person touching the victim.