Study: Public Defibrillators Save Lives

Expanding public access to machines that can restart the heart leads to more and better survival, a new study concludes. Researchers looked at the use of automated external defibrillators in Japan. These machines deliver an electric shock to hearts that have stopped beating (cardiac arrest). In some cases, this can restore a normal heartbeat. The study looked at three years when the supply of these machines in public places in Japan increased more than eight-fold. Researchers focused on 12,631 cardiac arrests that were caused by a heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation. All of them occurred outside a hospital but around witnesses. As the number of machines increased, bystanders were much more likely to use them. The shocks also were delivered faster. About 14% of the overall group survived cardiac arrest with little brain or nerve damage.