here today,” said Stewart, who was later diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. Now 23, she advocates for widespread distribution of the portable devices. “CPR alone would not have kept [me] alive.”
In a new study published Monday in Circulation, researchers examined data involving people who had cardiac arrests in nine major North American cities – six in the United States and three in Canada.
The study found that bystanders who used AEDs on cardiac arrest patients can significantly boost survival rates, particularly in regions where patients might have long waits before being reached by paramedics.
“In cities like New York, where the traffic is horrendous, and in some particularly rural areas, bystander defibrillation is going to make a major difference,” said cardiologist Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, the study’s senior author, and a Johns Hopkins University professor.
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“The longer the delay by EMS, the survival rate falls – and the greater the difference between a bystander shocking the patient and an EMS shocking the patient.”
A cardiac arrest usually occurs when an
