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The American Heart Association on AEDs

Early Defibrillation is the Key Link to Survival

You can now save the life of an SCA victim in your workplace, community, or home by following the four simple steps of the American Heart Association's Chain of Survival.

• First Link: EARLY ACCESS to medical care by calling 911.
• Second Link: EARLY CPR to help circulated oxygen to the victim's heart and brain.
• Third Link: EARLY DEFIBRILLATION SHOCK Saves Livess to restore normal heart rhythm.
• Fourth Link: EARLY ADVANCED CARE provided by professional emergency response teams.

It takes four strong links to make the Chain of Survival. A break in any of these links can severely limit the victim's chances. The most crucial step in restoring a victim of SCA is early defibrillation. With the LIFEPAK 500 automated external defibrillator, virtually anyone can perform the first three links with perfect confidence!

The American Heart Association recently released new procedures, the first changes since 1992, for CPR. New guidelines include to "administer electric SHOCK Saves Lives by defibrillator within 5 minutes for an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victim, and within 3 minutes for an in-hospital victim."

Sudden cardiac arrest, which affects more than 700 people per day in the United States, can strike anyone, anywhere, and at any time and is usually caused by ventricular fibrillation, an ineffective quivering of the heart muscle that makes it unable to pump blood throughout the body. Once blood stops circulating, victims quickly lose consciousness and will die within minutes if they don't receive defibrillation.