When one has no responsiveness and no breath, a bystander should immediately utilize an AED for first aid. Patient status can be checked by tapping on their shoulder or check on their carotid artery pulse at their neck, etc. If the patient is short breathing or has a faint pulse, AEDs should still be applied. AEDs will collect and analyze the patient's heart rythm, and diagnose with its built-in algorithm. If the patient does not need a defibrillation, AEDs will not deliver shocks so that there is little risk while using them .

AEDs have voice promts, visual hints, and animations to guide the rescuer to complete the rescue. In addition, when purchasing an AED, you could also choose a supplier who can provide training services to learn about the process in training sessions while installing an AED.

AEDs are medical devices designed for non-medical professionals. They are easy to operate with comprehensive guide and auto-analysis functions. Even people who had never received and medical training are able to operate AEDs to complete CPR and defibrillation. However, we here at Rescond still recommend that you learn about CPR and AEDs and maybe attend training sessions to keep you calm and efficient when an emergency occurs.

There are no records showing that AEDs are harmful to bystanders and their operators. In addition, there are no reports showing AEDs releasing improper currents. During first aids in emergencies, the rescuer shall act according to the steps prompted by the AED. When the AED is analyzing the patient's heart rhythm and shocking, the rescuer shall warn all persons in attendance to stand clear and make sure no one touches the patient. During the rescue, only when the rescuer presses the shock button will the AED release defibrillation current. As long as no one is touch the patient during the shocking, there is no risk of being shocked involved.

Sudden cardiac arrest is an acute anomaly in the heart's electrical activities which may happen before there are any organic lesions in the heart. During an SCA, the heart pumps at an irregular beat, leading to a drastic reduction in the heart's stroke volume, and resulting in loss of conscientiousness and breath. An SCA patient urgently needs CPR and defibrillation to lower the time during which their organs suffer from hypoxia, increasing survival rate and improving patient outcome.

No SCAs are usually caused by an abnomal heart electrical activity, and the heart is often not under any organic lesion. However, due to the rapid reduction in stroke volume, the patient usually lose conscientiousness in a few seconds, and hypoxia occurs in all parts of the patient's body especially in the brain. An SCA patient needs immedaite CPR and defibrillation. A heart attack, on the other hand, are generally caused by factors such as myocardium blood-supply insufficiency or coronary artery blockage, etc., and the heart is still partially functional. The patient may experience symptoms like nausea and pain, but they are generally conscientious and can call for help by themselves. When it's hard to tell which one the patient is suffering from, the AED's ECG algorithm can help the rescuer with the rescuing. After placing the electrode pads, the AED will automatically collect and analyze the patient's heart rhythm and decide whether the patient needs defibrillation.

Defibrillation generally refers to the process where a current stimulates the heart to terminate irregular heart rhythms. Defibrillation is the most effective treatment to malignant arrhythmia including ventricular fibrillation. After an AED decides that the patient needs defibrillation, the rescuer may press the shock button to deliver defibrillation to the patient without the need for any professional expertise like selecting the energy level, increasing the success rate while rescuing SCA patients.

Using AEDs are not better or worse than performing CPR; they are meant to be used and performed in conjunction. Both are key links in emergency first aid. CPR keeps pumping oxygenated blood toward the brain and other organs, while an AED provides the shock to reinstigate the heart back to its normal rhythm.

Due to the drastically reducing stroke volume, SCA patients are often suffering from hypoxia. Generally, at the four minute mark, the patients' brain cells start to die irreversibly, and brain deaths may happen at the 10 minute mark. Therefore, it is not possible to simply wait for ambulances or paramedics to arrive to save the lives of SCA patients. More than the EMS, they need us bystanders to timely participate in CPR and defibrillation to see a better survival. The golden 4 minutes: After 4 minutes since an SCA happens, necrosis start to happen in the patient's brain cells due to hypoxia. Even after their blood return to normal circulation, the functions of the damaged brain cells cannot be fully restored. Therefore, immediate CPR by bystanders are required after an SCA occurs. However, merely administering CPR cannot terminate ventricular fibrillations, and early defibrillation is needed to restore regular heart rhythm to the patient. Studies have shown that early defibrillation may improve return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) rate by over 200% to 50%-70%.

Ever since the emergence of AEDs, they have been widely deployed in out-of-hospital rescue protocols, saving countless lives of patients suffering from ventricular fibrillation. At present, defibrillation is the best way to treat VFs, but studies have shown that too high of a defibrillation energy might cause damage to the patient. Ideally, while guaranteeing the defibrillation efficacy, the defibrillator should lower its energy dose as much as possible in order to reduce its damage to the patient, hence low energy defibrillation.

In fact, AEDs are seperated into those designed for professionals and those for the public. The professional ones have more functions and shows more parameters while also being more complicated to use. On the other side, the general public would most likely prefer a simpler operation, with three steps to complete the entire rescue procedure. Based on FDA's previous survey of adverse events, a large portion of the adverse events are caused by human errors, i.e. inappropriate conductions during operating AEDs. Time to think is a luxury during emergency rescues, and too many functions too many stats on the screen may overwhelm an untrained rescuer, so it is better for them with a simpler AED.

There is a possibility to succeed and to fail in every medical treatment, yet survival rate in out-of-hospital rescues remains low in China. When a patient's heart stops beating, it is often the first few minutes that can decide their survival. Before the arrival of an ambulance, if a bystander can recognize the symptom and respond, the emergency patient may have a much greater chance to survive. Nonetheless, due to the lack of knowledge on first aid in the general public, many lives miss their optimal rescue timing and are left to death. According to a survey, over 540 thousand people die from acute heart related diseases each year in China, averaging one death per minute, and only less than 1% of out-of-hospital SCA patients attain ROSC. This is directly due to the nation's lack of first aid awareness. In comparison, many developed countries have established comprehensive training and education systems to raise awareness on the topic, meanwhile deploying first aid supplies including AEDs in public spaces. With the help of bystanders' timely respond and efficient treatment, out-of-hospital SCA survival rate can reach 30%-50% in some regions.

This depends on where you live. However, generally, many states have Good Samaritan laws to protect bystanders who give CPRs and use AEDs. In China, with section 184 of the General Rules of the Civil Law as well as Beijing Out-of-Hospital EMS Regulations being carried out, public emergency rescuing are to an extent protected. This is also incorporated in the new Civil Code. When damaged is caused from emergency treatment by a volunteering bystander, they are not obliged by civil liabilities. -- General Rules of the Civil Law, section 184

When using an AED on a wet patient: 1.Move the patient away from water. 2.Make sure there are no puddles next to the rescuers, the patient, or the AEDs. 3.Take off the wet garments of the patient, clean their chest, and then apply the pads(water can reduce the adhesiveness and conductivity of the pads).

No, AED pads are not reusable. They must be discarded after use. They can be disposed as regular trash because they are not toxic. Replace used pads with new ones as early as possible to properly respond to SCAs at all times.

No, every AED manufacturer has their exclusive means of connecting electrode pads to AEDs, so the pads are not interchangeable. Please purchase electrode pads designed for your AED and approved by the AED's manufacturer.

Somewhere visible and approachable, within 1-2 minutes from locations associated with SCA risk. Do not place AEDs in locked cabinets or locations hard to fetch.

Many external defibrillators are equipped manual defibrillation mode, allowing the operator to adjust the energy level and the timing to shock; however, AED are not. Those manual defibrillators are designed for well-trained professional medics or physicians to use while everyone can use AEDs, trained or untrained.

Generally, an AED is equipped with self check function, periodically monitoring the device's status including battery life, electric circut function, and electrode connection with the results showed at a status display window on the outside of the device. A device manager only have to check the status display window to know if the AED is ready to be used at anytime without having to turn it on. AEDs can often edure long-term standby, but their electrodes and batteries do have expiration dates, and need to be replaced before they expire.