Bad batteries in defibrillators tied to cardiac deaths

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44364504/ns/health-health_care/#.TmLLA2qKJhl

By Linda Carroll
updated 9/2/2011 9:08:16 AM ET

When Ralph Polanec collapsed June 25 at his Washington, D.C., gym, staff members thought they could save him with a shock from their automated external defibrillator. But when they tried to turn it on, nothing happened. The device didn’t even flicker. The gym’s staff later discovered that the AED’s batteries had been removed when they lost their charge — and had never been replaced.

That battery failure might have been Polanec’s death sentence. His heart never restarted, despite CPR from a friend and later treatment from emergency responders.

His stepmother, Ruth L. Polanec, was stunned when she learned the details of his death.

“He was just 55 years old,” said the 77-year-old Mesa, Ariz., woman. “He shouldn’t have died. I was very upset that the equipment wasn’t working, because if it had been working, it might have saved him. I just felt horrible that a young man should pass away when we have so much modern equipment today. But it’s no good if it doesn’t work.”

As it turns out, battery problems are one of the leading causes of potentially deadly AED failures, according to a new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

[...]

..