Fast Facts

AED Fast Facts

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

• Sudden cardiac arrest, suffered in settings outside the hospital, is responsible for about 350,000 deaths annually in the United States, and over 50,000 in California. Of those victims as many as 7,000 are children.
• Sudden cardiac arrest is most often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF), an electrical disturbance of the heart. A cardiac arrest is not a heart attack.
• When sudden cardiac arrest strikes, it does so without warning – the victim loses consciousness, has no pulse and stops breathing.
Because the heart can no longer pump oxygen to the brain and the rest of the body, the brain begins to die between 4-6 minutes after collapse.
• Defibrillators can mean the difference between life and death, or an active and healthy life versus a vegetative state.

Defibrillation and Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs)

• Survival is directly linked to the amount of time between the onset of sudden cardiac arrest and defibrillation.
• A victim’s chances of survival are reduced by 10 percent with every minute of delay until defibrillation.
• An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a small portable device that analyzes heart rhythms. It offers the user voice-prompted instructions and if determined to be necessary, can deliver a potentially lifesaving shock to a victim in cardiac arrest. An AED will not deliver a shock to anyone who isn’t experiencing life threatening heart rhythm.
Death from sudden cardiac arrest is not inevitable. If more AEDs were available more lives could be saved.
• AEDs are easy to use, compact, battery operated, lightweight and durable.

With the HeartSafe Program, southern San Mateo County is a more Heart Safe place to live, work, learn and play!

Did you know?

The HeartSafe Team was formed in July 2006 to explore the rational for a Public Access Defibrillator (PAD) program in southern San Mateo County. The Team is comprised of community health and safety professionals from local Fire, Police, Sheriff and Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) and is overseen by a Medical Director/ Electrophysiologist. Additionally the Team includes two community members; one who is a cardiac arrest survivor and one who is a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) leader. The Team advises the HeartSafe Program Manager on such issues as AED legislation, County cardiac arrest data, and AED placement priorities. Through their own resources, they also assist in CPR training of city and school officials among the 7 southern San Mateo County Cities and 8 public school districts within Sequoia Healthcare District’s geography.