New jump starts for hearts?(automated external defibrillators)

Thanks to an aggressive campaign by the American Heart Association (AHA) and medical-equipment makers, public buildings throughout the nation soon will have new easy-to-use defibrillators--laptop-size devices that can shock cardiac-arrest victims back to life.

The groups are pushing governments and companies to put the so-called automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in airports, sports arenas, malls, retirement communities, golf courses, offices, and other places where bystanders could save some of the 225,000 Americans who die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. During a cardiac arrest, the victim stops breathing and the heart quivers, or fibrillates, without pumping blood. If a normal heart rhythm can be restored by a defibrillator within four minutes, there's up to a 60 percent chance of reviving the patient. The odds improve with an even quicker response and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Now, the resuscitation rate nationally is only 2 to 5 percent--in large part because defibrillators don't get to victims in time. A public-access program could raise that rate to 20 percent, supporters say. "We would be saving 50,000 lives a year," says AHA president Dr. Rose Marie Robertson.

So far, eight national and six regional airlines have the new defibrillators or are in the process of getting them. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to announce rules that would require all commercial planes to carry them. Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports have 49 defibrillators within a minute's walk on walls throughout the terminals in a $300,000 public-access program. Ten other airports have or are creating similar programs. International Council of Cruise Lines guidelines call for cruise ships to carry the new defibrillators, but compliance is voluntary. Hundreds of corporations and malls also have been buying them.

The public-access push is partly the result of technological advances. The new defibrillators weigh just 4 to 7 pounds. Voice prompts guide rescuers through the process of placing special pads on the victim's exposed chest. The electrode pads automatically analyze the ...