Saving lives with a shock

Researchers attending the American Heart Assn.’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., last week reported the results from a plethora of heart-related studies. Among the findings . . .

Bystanders using battery-powered defibrillators may be saving more than 500 lives every year in the United States and Canada alone.

“Good Samaritans, when given access to automated defibrillators in potentially fatal emergencies, save lives,” Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who worked on the study, said in a statement.

The study, conducted in 11 cities in the United States and Canada, involved an analysis of patient records from more than 10,600 incidents of cardiac arrest called in to 911 emergency centers. Bystanders administered CPR in nearly 30% of the cases and offered CPR plus an automated external defibrillator in 2.4% of the cases, Weisfeldt said.

“Only 259 patients had an AED applied by a bystander. Their survival is very good. If they needed a shock and the device shocked them, they had a 36% survival rate. That compares to the overall survival rate of 7%,” Weisfeldt said in a telephone interview.