AED History, etc. (then a few neat quotes) – Defibrillators (a precursor to AED) in hospitals have been around since the late 1960s, but they were large, AC current devices, not practical to carry in a fire truck or EMT vehicle, like an AED. In 1993, 5 guys that worked for Physio-Control (a maker of hospital defibrillators), quit their jobs to try and develop (not greasy burgers & fries, but) a portable battery-operated defibrillator. As a result, they created the HeartStream AED (the first portable AED or Automated External Defibrillator). The HeartStream ForeRunner or FR1 later became the Philips HeartStart. We still sell two AED models of those today (the HeartStart OnSite and the HeartStart FRx).
Regarding AEDs now, USA Today quoted. “Today, partly because of their invention, hundreds and perhaps thousands of lives are saved annually by ordinary people aboard airplanes, in homes, and at other places outside hospitals. These automated external defibrillators, which guide even a first-time user through the procedure step by step, are helping close a critical gap in speedy delivery of emergency medical services”.
“The founders of HeartStream had to change the medical culture, from a paradigm that only doctors and nurses inside of hospitals were capable of analyzing a patient’s heart, and delivering an electrical shock if needed. Now, untrained, and even children, are capable of correctly using an AED to save a loved one”.
