Automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, check and monitor heart rhythm and can send electric shocks to the heart to help it regain a normal rhythm. AEDs are portable devices that are most commonly used to treat SCA, or sudden cardiac arrest.
Most people who experience SCA do not survive, but the presence and use of an AED can save lives. Within the first few minutes after the cardiac arrest takes place, an automated external defibrillator can be used to check the victim’s heart rate, and it will notify the user if an electric shock is needed to help the victim recover his or her normal heart rhythm.
Who Should Have An AED?
Leslie Armstrong, founder of EllaHeartStrong Foundation is on a mission to spread awareness of having an effective AED on sight wherever children practice or play.
Leslie shared her family’s gut wrenching experience of losing their eight-year-old daughter, Ella, who suffered from a SCA and didn’t survive.
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