SCA & Early Defibrillation
What is SCA?
Sudden cardiac arrest, commonly known as massive heart attack, kills more than 450,000 Americans each year, making it the #1 health care problem...
Read MoreWhat causes SCA?
The most common cause of SCA is ventricular fibrillation -- a lethal arrhythmia characterized by rapid, chaotic contractions of the heart. While in ventricular fibrillation...
Read MoreWhy early defibrillation is important?
In many cases, SCA can be reversed with early defibrillation -- the use of a defibrillator to shock the heart back into normal rhythm by means of an electric current...
Read MoreAED
What is AED?
The AED is a device about the size of a small laptop computer that analyzes the heart's rhythm for any abnormalities and, if necessary, directs the rescuer to deliver an electric shock to a victim of cardiac arrest.
Read More
Features of AED
Not all AEDs are the same. In general however they do have common features such as : voice prompts, heart rhythm analysis, and internal memory.
Read More
How does an AED work?
An AED must be easy to operate. It uses voice prompts to instruct the rescuer. Once the user open the lid of the AED, the unit is turned on automatically. The rescuer will be prompted to apply two pads provided with the AED to the patient's chest.
Read More
Legal and liability issues
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, there is currently no restriction on the usage, ownership and sales of AEDs. Being a leading international financial centre, with many international conferences held in Hong Kong annually, many overseas visitors do expect similar "heart safe" environment as they are used to in their own Country. AED is the Fire-extinguisher equivalent for medical emergencies. The liability is placed on whether places such as leading Hotels and Convention centres, are equipped with such AED devices, more than the responsibility of a failed resuscitation attempt. Family members of visitors with SCA incidents often ask the question whether AED was deployed during the resuscitation attempts at the place of incident. However, it is also highly recommended that AED users do go through a Certificated First Aid Course consisting of CPR and AED training. This Certificate of "Basic Life Support + AED" allows the user to establish his/her credibility for the rescue of the SCA victim. It goes a long way to safeguard the user in the Court of Law. In fact, all users of AEDs would have an AED Program in placed, which would include certified CPR and AED training. See [Deployment] and [Training] sections.
Read More