Shocks on the Spot: Defibrillators in Public Places

By Sam McManis, The Sacramento Bee

They told him later that he was a goner, his heart flat-lined. One moment, he was sitting on a stack of pallets at the Target distribution center in Woodland, talking to his boss. The next, he was on the floor without a pulse.

But Tim Joseph, a 52-year-old Davis resident with no known heart condition, was jolted back from the dead within a few minutes, thanks to a machine that fits in a bright-red case the size of a laptop computer.

Automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, are becoming common in public places such as airports, shopping malls and casinos. In a cardiac emergency, having this type of device on hand can mean the difference between death or severe brain damage and full recovery, experts say.

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