AED123 Blog

Jan 29, 2019

A Hotel Defibrillator Saved My Dad’s Life

While on vacation in 2017, my dad was seated across the table from me at a hotel restaurant. We were having a normal conversation when he suddenly fell back in his chair, lifeless. Like 400,000 Americans each year, he had suffered from sudden cardiac arrest, and his heart had stopped beating.

The hotel had an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), and someone grabbed it. None of us knew how to use an AED, but we opened it, and the device spoke to us with clear directions. Seconds later, the device had issued a life-saving shock to Dad’s heart.

Dad was lucky. Of the 400,000 Americans who experience sudden cardiac arrest each year, fewer than 5% are treated promptly with an AED, and fewer than 10% survive. We had a different set of odds. By making AEDs available, our hotel had increased Dad’s chance of survival to 75%.

I am thankful for the many hotels who already have AEDs, and I founded AED123 to make it easy and affordable for more hotels, and businesses of all types, to have AEDs and save lives.