Home defibrillators do not increase survival

[OoO 24]

Having a defibrillator at home does not protect heart attack survivors against a cardiac arrest any better than having someone at home with good cardiopulmonary resuscitation training, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

[...]

Out of 123 arrests, just 63 of those were witnessed and a defibrillator was used in just 32 people. The device, which can assess a patient's rhythm, called for a shock to be delivered in just 14 patients, and only four survived long enough to be discharged from the hospital.

Bardy told reporters the rate of cardiac arrests occurring at home was lower than expected, and many occurred when the victim was alone.

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Edited April 1, 2008 by OoO

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That article really does a poor job of explaining the research. In cases where the arrest was witnessed and Defib was used they had a 12.5% survival to discharge rate. AHA lists the arrest to discharge rate at 6.8%. Seems pretty good to me.