AED - Video Lesson

Hey everybody. Welcome to today's patient care lesson on medical emergencies. This lesson focuses on automated external defibrillators or AEDs, including when they should be used, precautions to take prior to use, and finally, how to use an AED. This information is critical as time is of the essence in situations that call for their use. Our hearts have an electrical system called the cardiac conduction system. When the cardiac conduction system is working properly, the heart beats at a normal rhythm called sinus rhythm. However, some conditions called arrhythmias can disrupt the heart's normal sinus rhythm. Defibrillation is the delivery of a high energy shock to terminate specific types of irregular heart rhythms. This shock allows the heart's natural pacemaker to reestablish an organized rhythm. Ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation are two kinds of arrhythmias that can be corrected