Automated external defibrillator

769 Words2 Pages

What I wanted to talk about today is this life save device called a automated external defibrillator. It has become the number one way to resuscitate a person who has had a cardiac arrest unwitnessed by emergency medical services and who is still in persistent ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Many people have played a big role in creating this device to become more efficient, smaller and easier to use for the general public. Here are just to name a few that played a part in the creation for this device: Claude Beck, James Rand, Paul Zoll, and Frank Pantridge. The first use of a defibrillator on a patient was in 1947 on a 14 year old boy. Claude Beck was performing a open-chest surgery when the boy went into fibrillation. Beck manually massaged his heart for 45 minutes until the arrival of the defibrillator. The defibrillator he used during surgery was made by James Rand and had silver paddles the size of large teaspoons. In 1956, Paul Zoll performed the first successful external defibrillation with a more powerful defibrillator. A major breakthrough in emergency medicine occur in 1965. At the time a majority of coronary deaths occurred outside of the hospital setting since defibrillator required a main power source and were only available in hospitals it made them pretty much useless in saving lives outside of a hospital setting. Frank Pantridge often referred to as the Father of Emergency Medicine, made the first portable defibrillator in 1965. This device was power by a car battery and weighted approximately 70 kg (155 lbs). By 1968 he was able to create a defibrillator that was safer to use and only weighted 3 kg (6-7 lbs). It was argued that their was a possibility of misuse of the device if given to a unt...

... middle of paper ...

... AEDs & Defibrillation: AED - AEDGRANT.COM ~ FREE AED GRANTMONEY!!! ~ AED Grant for Individual, and organizations.. (2003, February 13). History of AEDs & Defibrillation: AED - AEDGRANT.COM ~ FREE AED GRANTMONEY!!! ~ AED Grant for Individual, and organizations.. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://www.aedgrant.com/aed-history.htm
NCBI. (2005, April 2). Frank Pantridge. Frank Pantridge. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC555899/
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2011, December 2). What Is an Automated External Defibrillator?. - NHLBI, NIH. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/aed/
Virtual Museum EMS History. (2011, August 11). Professor Frank Pantridge. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-museum/history/articles/399784-Professor-Frank-Pantridge

Open Document