Having investigated the growing range automatic defibrillators over the past 6 months we finally settled on the model offered by St. Johns and our unit was delivered last week. With five of our doctors and one of our nurses trained as PRIME practitioners, we regularly attend callouts to support the ambulance and paramedics but it will be nice to have on-site access to a defibrillator if needed in emergency. Previously defibrillators have been large, very expensive units but with technological advances, compact, relatively reasonable units are available. While not exactly cheap at approx $3500 they  can make a significant difference in sudden cardiac arrest survival by eliminating the delay in waiting for an ambulance equipped with a defibrillator. Hopefully our record of not needing one in the practice over the past 25 years will continue, but at least we now have one available if the need arises.

Heartstart Automatic External Defibrillator

Heartstart AED easily available if needed