Defibrillators improve odds of surviving cardiac arrest

When a co-worker goes down from cardiac arrest, the hard truth is that the time spent waiting for the paramedics to arrive can be the difference between life and death.

But if a company has people on staff trained to operate a defibrillator ? a compact machine that delivers an electrical shock to the heart ? the natural rhythm of the heart can be restored in the nick of time.

Unlike a heart attack, when blood flow to the heart is blocked temporarily, the primary cause of sudden cardiac arrest is ventricular fibrillation. In this condition, the heart?s electrical impulses become chaotic…