When suffering from sudden cardiac arrest, the heart will immediately lose the ability to pump blood. If cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation that are key to cardiac rescue arrest can not be performed immediately, severe cerebral ischemia and hypoxia will occur to significantly reducing the survival rate. In order to recover the heart rate of the patients, the rescuers should seize the time to rescue and be able to deal with the emergency in the rescue process calmly. Thus, it is crucial for the patient and the caretaker to know about how to use AED devices, followed by the AED safety precautions while using it.
An AED package, such as Mindray AED, typically contains an AED equipment, AED replacement pads, batteries, and may be also a AED box. The AED device is a machine designed for delivering an electric shock to the heart to restore normal heartrythm again.. When AED is at work, it first analyzes the rhythms of the heart and then decides whether there is a AED shock required. This is what an AED does to the patients, but if we want a smooth and successful rescue process, there are some AED safety precautions we have to keep in mind while using AED devices.
AED Safety Precautions While Using It
1. Open the AED Equipment
Open the AED box to take out the machine and check whether the accessories are complete, then turn on the device and wait for two seconds for it to become functional.
2. Exposing the Patient’s Chest
Expose the patient’s chest by removing any clothing when the AED device is starting up. In this case, there are different situations:
- If there is water or sweat on the chest, wipe it with a cloth; otherwise, the AED device can have difficulty analyzing the correct heart rate due to the nonstick pads caused by the water.
- If there is a lot of hair on the chest, it is better to shave it if you have a razor available at site (you can ignore it if there is litter hair). Because the AED pads hard to fit with the chest skin entirely if there is a lot of chest hair. Moreover, it is hurtful when tearing them off. But don’t loose too much time on shaving the chest because the the shock needs to be given as soon as possible.
- If there are metal objects on the chest, take them off; otherwise, they will conduct electricity when the machine delivers an AED shock.
- For AED safety precautions, please keep in mind that do not use alcohol to dry the patient's chest as alcohol is flammable.
3. Place AED Pads
The placement of pads is vital for the delivery of current through the hearty of the patient in a correct manner. Mindray BeneHeart AED offers pictures and audio guidance, so no worry about putting them in the wrong place.
There are majorly two places identified to place the AED replacement pads rightly. One of the pads is needed to place on the lower side of the collar bone or the upper side of the chest on the right side. While the other one is placed close to the area of the armpit on the left arm, exactly on the rib cage of the patient (anterior – lateral position) This placement is for men and women.
Note that the disposable AED pads are placed on the front and the other one on the backside (anterior -posterior position) of the heart in the case of children under eight years of age.
4. AED Analysis
When the AED pads are positioned , AED equipment will start analyzing the heartrhythm automatically.
In the analyzing part, do not touch the patient or the electrode wires; otherwise, the analyzing can not be performed properly.
5. Deliver AED Shock
When the AED device detects that there is an AED shock required, it will immediately give the command. For fully automated AED, it will automatically deliver the shock after prompting the order to stay away from the patient. For the semi-automatic AED, there is a need for the rescuer to press the shock button to deliver the electric shock.
Clear the surrounding objects of the patient, and no one should be in close contact with the patient when AED is delivering a shock because the current may travel from the patient to others.
When the AED machine indicates “no shock advised,” follow the instructions and keep the elektrodes attached to the patient until emergency medical personnel take over.
Conclusion
Continuous cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an essential factor in improving the recovery rate of patients with cardiac arrest. In addition to AED safety precautions keeping in mind, buying the trust-worthy AED equipment is also critical for the safe use. Mindray is the leading AED brand around the world and provides SCA solutions for manu large organization. If you are considering to cooperate with an famous AED company, you are going to surprise by Mindray’s professionism in AED.