Heart Attacks and Home Defibrillators

Heart Attacks are not just something that happens to "older people". Approximately 22% of sudden deaths for people between 1 and 21 years of age are due to cardiac arrest. In 2008, the American Red Cross issued an advisory change recommending automated external defibrillation for victims as young as newborn.

Regarding women, in the American Heart Association's 2008 public policy statement on the topic, the health agency wrote: "The coronary heart disease death rate for younger women ages 35 to 44 increased annually between 1997 and 2002. Cardiovascular disease now kills more women than the next five causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer. However, the perception persists that heart disease is just a "mans disease"...

Most victims of sudden cardiac arrest had no warning signs. The majority of sudden cardiac arrest victims were asymptomatic, meaning these victims were not at heightened risk for a heart attack. In fact, more women are struck without warning than men.

Here are a few facts to think about:

* About 75 percent to 80 percent of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home.

* Approximately 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.

* Brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no CPR and defibrillation occurs during that time.

* If CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victims chances of survival fall 7 percent to 10 percent for every minute of delay until application of external defibrillation.

* If CPR and external defibrillation are not provided within minutes of collapse, resuscitation is almost impossible.

* Approximately 310,000 of all annual adult coronary heart disease deaths in the United States are suffered outside the hospital setting.

So how do you survive a Cardiac Arrest away from the hospital? First make sure that family members are trained in First Aid and CPR with home defibrillator training and that they recognize these Cardiac Chain of Survival points:

? Early recognition of the emergency and early access to EMS

? Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)

? Early external defibrillation

? Early advanced medical care

Besides CPR SCA usually require external defibrillation, each minute defibrillation is delayed reduces the victims chance of survival by about 10 percent. So you can see the importance of public use AEDs and the home defibrillator. Having an automatic external defibrillator available within the first few minutes of a heart attack and having proper CPR is crucial to the survival of the victim.

Robert Taylor is a heart attack survivor as a result of timely CPR and the external defibrillator. Knowing the importance of the home defibrillator he has a web site dedicated to home-defibrillator.net reviews and sales of the home defibrillator.