The Speculist

Heart disease kills many people who had no idea that they were sick. More than 300,000 people die every year in the United States from sudden cardiac arrest. Most of these people had no idea they had heart disease.

For the best chance of survival from SCA caused by VF, a defibrillator should be used within 5 minutes. Yet, less than 1 in 20 people survive largely because a defibrillator does not arrive in time.

That's the bad news, the good news is that more people will be saved as defibrillators become common.

This model, the Philips HeartStart, requires no training to operate. The unit itself will prompt you to remove the victim's shirt, place an electrode on the right upper chest, another electrode on the lower left rib cage, and then the unit will monitor the heart and decide if a shock is necessary.

If the unit determines that CPR is needed, it will walk the user through those steps.

So that you won't have a dead battery at the worst time, it performs a daily self-test. It doesn't call 911 for you [note to Philips: it should], but this product is a remarkable advancement in home safety equipment.

The price of $1,500 is still prohibitive for many. But like other technology, prices are coming down while the products improve.

This gadget is the perfect synthesis of two of our mottos at The Speculist: Things are getting "better all the time," and "live to see it."

Via Instapundit.