The Importance of the AED Box and How to Maintain it?

According to American Heart Association, up to 350,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest outside the hospital in the US alone[1]. The silver lining to this is that there have been increased survival rates in response to the CPR. While tackling a cardiac arrest, every minute counts. Use of AED must be encouraged among the masses as this is an emergency, life-saving device and needs to be made more common.

What is an AED box?

AED stands for Automatic External Defibrillators. An AED box is an emergency lifesaver designed to instantly restore the heartbeat of the person having a cardiac arrest. The emergency lifesaver device assesses the heart rhythm of the person and delivers an electric shock to the person having ventricular fibrillation that results in a cardiac arrest. There are two reasons for cardiac arrests:

❖ Increased heartbeat to a dangerous level known as ventricular tachycardia

❖ Irregular or high heartbeat is known as ventricular fibrillation.

Without immediate CPR or defibrillation, a person’s survival rates decrease by 7%-10% with each passing minute[2]. After 8 minutes of cardiac arrest, if no effort has been made to revive the heart, resuscitation hardly succeeds[2]. Hence, every minute counts, and action needs to be done ASAP.

How necessary is it to protect the AED box in a wall mounted bracket?

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of a durable AED box in your home, commercial properties, or school. With only 10 minutes on the watch to provide resuscitation to the victim, it is essential to have the intact AED box at easy access in every vicinity. It will be very frustrating if the first-aid personnel can't find a conspicuous AED box on the wall or get a broken AED box in panic. He will miss the best rescue time!

The best way to do so is to install a wall-mounted bracket and keep the AED box safe inside it. If you own a gym, golf course, casino, school and or cruise ship, consider placing an AED wall-mounted bracket in the vicinity. Moreover, if you have an elderly person living in your home, consider installing an automated external defibrillator. Having an automated external defibrillator (AED) in your home or commercial property could be the difference in life and death.

Here are our top reasons to protect AED Box:

➢ Any worker or house member could suffer from sudden cardiac arrest at any time.

➢ Having an AED box on-site can improve survival chances by significant numbers.

➢ A heart rhythm in ventricular fibrillation will need an electric shock which is what an automatic AED can do to resuscitate.

➢ An AED machine is a compact, lightweight, battery-operated and safe to use life-saving, emergency device, so keeping it in close approach won’t have any consequences or hassles.

How to Maintain a Wall-Mounted AED box?

Installing a AED wall-mounted bracket at your premises does not mean your work is over. This lifesaver box needs proper maintenance; otherwise, it is of no use. You must be thinking why you should maintain the box when you have installed the best one, and it is there at your access, right? Here is why: Imagine someone at your workplace gets a sudden cardiac arrest. You have the AED box near you; you and some other co-workers have AED & CPR training.

So you all think you will be able to handle the situation before the paramedics arrive. But as soon you try to start the AED, it doesn’t work!

Picture the agony and helplessness for both you and the victim. That’s why it is crucial to keep the device maintained. Before you fret thinking it will be some cumbersome task. Have a look at few easy steps on how it should be done:

1. Make sure your AED box is in a location that is visible to everyone and the mounting bracket is reachable to all. The information outside the AED device should always be clearly visible.

2. After installation, check if the batteries are rightly installed.

3. Have a glance at the service/status of the AED box as shown by the indicator light in a regular time.

4. Look for the loss of any audio or visual service upon opening the box at the time you check them.

5. Inspect thoroughly if there are some cracks on the components of the box or the socket.
6. Make sure you have at least two sets of unused/ sealed AED pads that aren’t expired.

7. Check out the battery recommendations of the AED box you bought, maintain a proper record, and replace the battery regularly.

8. Thoroughly study the manufacturer manual that comes with the AED box and makes sure you don’t miss any maintenance instruction that comes specifically for the model you have installed.

9. Try getting your hands on an AED box that comes with a monitoring system like the Mindray one. They have this AED monitoring system known as AED-Alert 2.0 that keeps a check on all the AED devices saving you from traditional manual inspections.

Our Recommendations

Now that you are fully equipped with the knowledge and information about the AED box make sure you choose a good quality, latest technology AED box. After having researched about AED boxes for a long time, our top pick is Mindray semi/auto AED that is super easy to use, has a long run, and equips with cutting-edge technology.

Summing Up

In the fast-paced world of today, where information spreads with the speed of light, it is our responsibility to spread awareness about something so crucial and significant. A life-saving device that increases the chance of people at life is a must-have in homes as well as public places. Not the device, but the training to use and maintain an AED device is something every person needs to have. We hope this article was of help!

References:
[1] About Cardiac Arrest. Available at: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cardiac-arrest/about-cardiac-arrest (Accessed: 22 March 2021)
[2] Use of Automated External Defibrillators in Cardiac Arrest. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. Volume 15, Issue 19, 1 December 2005, Pages 1-29. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3382296/ (Accessed: 22 March 2021)