Originally Posted by
GrahamO
Defibrillators will not deliver a shock if the patient has no heartbeat.
Not a lot of people evidently appear tp know that. You use CPR to get the heart moving and the defib unit decides itself, based upon the electrical signals it gets from the pads, whether a shock is appropriate.
Its not something that the user decides unless they are in a hospital.
No!
The the idea of a defibrillator is to stun the heart from an electrical rhythm that is not allowing the heart to contract rhythmically to pump blood, in the hope the heart will restore its normal pumping function. A person with a heartbeat does not need defibrillating. (Excepting in hospital treatment used to correct rythmn errors).
CPR is an attempt to keep (predominantly), the brain supplied with oxygen. There are rare occasions that the physical force of CPR could get things started, Google 'precordial thump'. It's to give the patient a better chance of survival when a defib arrives.
There are plenty of first responders, paramedics, EMT, nurses, doctors, etc. that can make the decision to defribrilate based on experience, training and the incident. The public access automatic defibrillators are designed to remove that despise on making away from the user so that anyone who can follow simple instructions can use them.
HTC