Displacement of death in public space by lay people using the automated external defibrillator.

This paper reports on a study where a technology, the Automated External Defibrillator (AED), enables a socially troubling death in public space to be moved to a more acceptable location. This was a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews with lay (non-medical) people, in a variety of locations, who had been trained to use an AED. The AED, and its use by lay people, means that the time and place of death from heart attack can be changed from a location like a railway station or shopping centre to the ambulance or hospital.

Resuscitation great. A history of mechanical devices for providing external chest compressions.

The importance of providing good quality chest compressions with limited interruptions has been emphasised by the Resuscitation Guidelines 2005. The difficulties of providing consistent, good quality, chest compressions manually are well documented and attempts have been made to devise mechanical means to achieve this. Many see the development of mechanical devices as a new phenomenon; however, as with many other components of resuscitation science, they have in fact been available for a number of years.

Training lay-people to use automatic external defibrillators: are all of their needs being met?

Aims: We explored the experiences of lay people who have been trained to use automatic external defibrillators. The research questions were: (1) How can training courses help prepare people for dealing with real life situations? (2) Who is ultimately responsible for providing critical incident debriefing and how should this be organised? (3) What is the best process for providing feedback to those who have used an AED?

Methodology: Fifty-three semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted, some with those who had been trained and others with trainers. Locations included airports, railway stations, private companies and first responder schemes.