AED Machine
An AED Machine is a device that treats Sudden Cardiac Arrest. These devices are found in businesses, schools, public buildings, and even private homes. When someone suffers from sudden cardiac arrest, an AED machine can be used to provide them with life-saving treatment until paramedics arrive on the scene or until they can be taken to a hospital. In this blog post, we will explore what it means when you hear people refer to “AED” machines and how these devices have saved countless lives! In addition, we will cover how you roll out an AED program from start to finish.
Types of Defibrillators
Defibrillators are electric devices that use electrical currents to regulate the heart. There are three main types of defibrillators:
- Wearable cardioverter defibrillators (WCDs)
- Automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
- Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD)
While most people think of an AED Machine as being used externally on the chest in order to save Sudden Cardiac Arrest victims, this is not always how they operate. An automated external defibrillator or AED is reserved for cardiac emergencies and other types of devices are designed for preventive measures.
Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
AED‘s are amazing medical devices that are credited with saving countless lives. and are used to shock a person’s heart back into rhythm when the body suffers an electrical disturbance that causes their ventricles to stop pumping blood and they lose consciousness or slip into cardiac arrest.
AEDs have saved many individuals from Sudden Cardiac Death by providing life-saving shocks of electricity when needed. Modern AED’s are amazing in that they perform a very sophisticated check on the victim determining if SCA is the cause of the problem. If SCA is not recognized the AED will not shock the victim either automatically or manually for AED’s that require you to press the shock button at the appropriate time. AED’s can detect the following:
- Ventricular Fibrillation, which is defined as rapid, uncoordinated contractions of the heart muscle that are not controlled by normal pacemaker impulses.
- Ventricular Tachycardia, which is defined as a fast and abnormally regular heartbeat with rates over 100 beats per minute. * Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA), which occurs when your heart’s electrical signals are too weak
- Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA) is a type of cardiac arrest, which doesn’t produce a pulse. When people experience sudden cardiac arrest, it typically manifests in pulseless electrical activity in at least 55% of cases.
- Asystole is a fatal heart arrhythmia that causes the person to stop breathing. Asystole is the most serious form of cardiac arrest and it’s usually irreversible.
If an AED detects any of these conditions it will offer to deliver a shock in a range of 150 or 360 Joules depending on which AED defibrillator is in use. Some AED’s deliver a constant level of energy, measured in joules while other AED’s use an escalating energy delivery method.
AED kits are equipped with electrode pads and a battery, both of which come with an expiration date. AED electrode pads are equipped with a special gel that sticks to a person’s skin, and it manages to identify if the heartbeat is suitable for being defibrillated. Most devices will only allow a shock to be delivered if it is deemed safe for the victim meaning if the victim is not suffering from SCA, and instead possibly a heart attack, the AED will not necessarily shock the victim if SCA is not recognized.
Best Automated External Defibrillators
At AED USA we sell and service all 6 major FDA-approved brands of AED’s for the United States. These 6 companies manufacture and sell the best AED’s in the world.
‘Automated’ in ‘automated external defibrillator’ means that the machine is designed to automatically read heart rhythms. AEDs use a built-in algorithm to determine the appropriate course of action based on the electrical activity detected by them. Fully Automated AEDs can deliver shocks without any input from a human, whereas Semi-Automated AEDs will only shock if there is some input from a human operator.
Semi-Automatic Shock
Semi auto-delivery is standard with most AEDs. After the device determines that a shock is warranted, it instructs the user to press a “Shock” button on the device. One thing that sets the Automated External Defibrillator apart from other devices is that it won’t defibrillate an onlooker. The AED will not respond when you press the shock button if there are no shockable heart rhythms detected. Quantified independently by the five most common devices in a semi-automatic mode, the Philips OnSite and FRx, Heartsine 350P and 450P, and Defibtech VIEW is able to help save lives of sudden cardiac arrest victims.
Fully Automatic Shock
Fully auto-delivery requires no intervention from the user once the pads are placed on the patient, other than to make sure everyone stands clear. An Automated External Defibrillator can detect whether a shock is needed and issue warnings before automatically administering the shock. Companies are adding this feature to a growing number of defibrillators and sometimes offer it as an upgrade. The Cardiac Science Powerheart AED G3 Plus and the Cardiac Science Powerheart G5 and the Zoll AED Plus and Defibtech Lifeline both can be sold as Semi-Automatic or Fully Automatic.
A joule is the amount of energy an automated external defibrillator (AED) delivers in a life-saving shock to the heart of a victim of sudden cardiac arrest.
Certain modern AED’s deliver a shock with escalating energy, which means the AED will begin to increase in its device’s joules until it detects a response from your heart.
With escalating AED’s, the first blast of 150 Joules may not be enough to restore your heart back to a normal rhythm.
The AED will then deliver increasing amounts of energy until it detects the response from your heart muscle; up to 360 joules (even more in some cases).
For example, the Heartsine and Physio-Control AED’s use escalating joules settings, while the Philips HeartStart AED does not.
What is Sudden Cardiac Arrest?
SCA is one of the leading causes of death and has been estimated to affect more than 350,000 people in the United States every year. Sudden Cardiac Arrest can happen at any time and is usually caused by either a heart attack or an irregular heartbeat that causes a sudden lack of blood flow to the brain or other organs. Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) is when a victim of SCA does not survive. SCD in many cases can be reversed by immediately doing these two things:
- Start CPR Immediately – If the SCA victim’s heart is not beating or beating so irregularly that the heart can not pump blood throughout the body this leads to a lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. If this happens, CPR is needed in order for the victim’s heart to start pumping again.
- Get an AED Machine – An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine delivers a shock to restart the heart by delivering typically up to 300 joules of electricity directly into the person.
An AED, or Automatic External Defibrillator, is specifically designed to be used by people with no medical training. When someone experiences SCA they are usually unresponsive and without intervention, this can lead to death within minutes. An AED Machine will detect whether the heart has stopped beating normally or if it.
How much is an AED machine?
Modern AED’s have come down in price dramatically over the last 5 years. Due to technological advancements, they have also become more reliable and durable as well as smaller in size. The retail price of public access AED’s for sale today range from $1275 to well over $2000. At AED USA we always have discounts to reduce your cost from retail up to $400. Check out our AED’s here for great deals.
Can you buy an AED for your home?
Not only can you buy an AED for your home, but it is also one of the best decisions you can make for yourself and your family. SCA can happen at any time to anyone but 70% of sudden cardiac events happen in the home.
68.5% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home which has led to the call for more patient access to AEDs there.
Saving a life of a family member, coworker or even someone you don’t know is reason enough to learn CPR. Because four out of five cardiac arrests occur at home, administering immediate CPR and defibrillation can dramatically increase the probability of saving the victim’s life.
And, in case you’re curious, 21% OHCAs occurred in public settings and 10.5% occurred in nursing homes.
Can anyone buy an AED?
Anyone can buy an AED and even though a new AED requires a prescription to purchase the AED, the prescription is not written for a specific person like you are used to, but instead is a prescription for the device. Also, all new AED’s come with a prescription automatically from the manufacturer.
How does an AED machine work?
An AED is a portable medical device used to shock a person’s heart back into rhythm. The AED machine has built-in electrode pads that attach to the chest below the shoulder and to the torso on the other side of the body so that the two electrodes can be placed on both sides of the victim’s chest with one electrode going over each breastbone or rib area.
How Does a Defibrillator Work
Defibrillators are designed to use electricity or a shock to the heart to correct or restore a heartbeat for the following:
- Defibrillation is the process of restarting irregular heartbeats, specifically ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia.
- AED machines have the capability to restore a normal heartbeat in cardiac arrest sufferers.
A defibrillator analyzes the heart’s rhythm, then provides an electric shock to restore cardiac function. An AED machine attempts to restart a person’s heart if the device detects an abnormal heartbeat. The typical defibrillator will deliver 150 to 360 Joules of electricity at a time. If the patient doesn’t respond to the initial shock, subsequent shocks may be automatically adjusted with more or less electricity.
Previously, defibrillators relied exclusively on monophasic shock delivery. As device makers have switched to lower-energy biphasic shocks, the current flow goes in both directions. Energy flows from one paddle to the other and then starts reversing direction. The Philips HeartStart series is one of the first AED lines to standardize biphasic waveform technology.
One key benefit of biphasic delivery is that it allows defibrillators to restore normal heart function with less energy, thereby reducing the risk to the patient and allowing a greater likelihood of success. Studies have shown that 200-J biphasic shocks are as effective as 360-J monophasic shocks when it comes to the survival of cardiac arrest victims.
Who invented the defibrillator?
The first portable resuscitator was invented and used by Dr. Frank Pantridge in 1963 to save the lives of Sudden Cardiac Arrest victims. He made it available for all emergency responders including police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics in his hometown in Ireland. This invention was the predecessor of today’s modern automated external defibrillator. Dr. Frank Pantridge is considered the father of emergency medicine with his creation of the first portable defibrillator installed on His first design was powered by a car battery and weighed 154 pounds (70kgs). Pantridge created the AED machine in 1968. The initial design weighed almost three kilograms, but his second design reduced the weight to 6.61 pounds.
Increased Survival Rates in Sudden Cardiac Arrest
The use of modern technology in AEDs has increased the accessibility of these devices. One of the major challenges slowing adoption rates for AEDs is access – there are not enough public access AED’s in the US to move the survival rate needle. That is changing though with the lower average cost of AED’s and better technology in a smaller package has all helped increase the number of devices available.
AED Program
Making an important life-saving decision to purchase an AED is step number one and obviously a very important one. You must have access to an AED to save lives. What many new AED owners don’t know is that each state in the US manages its own requirements and laws regarding owning an AED in their state. They differ drastically state by state and other than requiring a prescription (for the AED device) there is not another nationally mandated law regarding AED ownership.
As a community-minded company, AED USA ensures your satisfaction with our customer service and support in addition to providing the best quality product. We supply not only new AEDs and all their accessories but we also manage the devices with the program management and make it our mission to save lives.
AED USA considers our customers part of our growing family. You are not just a number because we are small enough to provide you with the support you need in a personalized, individualized manner. We are here when you need us and you will always experience support that goes above and beyond from our friendly staff of experts.
Because we are a national, multi-brand AED supplier, we have extensive knowledge that allows us to determine which AED brands, models and features are best for you. We supply only new AED devices from top manufacturers in the United States, ensuring that you purchase the highest quality product on the market, quickly and professionally.
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