At work I've been tasked with a fact finding / recommendation on purchasing an AED.

 

This has been triggered by a member of senior staff suffering a "Heart Attack" a few weeks ago.



Our budget is upto £1.5k.



From what stuff I've seen (but my knowledge is very limited), it seems that the Zoll range seems ideal with their "one piece" pads.



We would appreciate all feedback / thoughts / recommendations etc.

Hopefully your new purchase (when you get it) will never be used, if thats the case then its irrelavent which AED you buy. Most AED's are just over £1000, very few are just under, however they all do the same basic thing, some just have a few more bells and whistles than others, some show ECG rythms (not required if you can't read them) some have a metronome incorporated into the machine to assist with rate of compressions, Zoll have a lid that will fit under the head to keep the ariway open, again zoll have a 1 piece pad system with a pressure gauge in it to encourage correct depth, but these wont fit obese patients, I believe you need to seperate the pads for these patients.

Basically, it doesn't really matter which one in my opinion, but some will be on offer at the time of purchase. some thing else to consider is on going costs, some pads are dearer than others but they do last 5 years ish. Some batteries are dearer than others too. Before I retired we bought 38 Laerdal FR2's for the fire trucks, and they proved their worth by saving 2.5 people in 2 years, where simple to use and have a dedicated trainer, 1 person had ROSC but later died in hospital, hence the half.

I'd get the one on offer at the time that has cheaper long term running costs. If your organisation allow quality training time, some aed's have a training battery and pads that will allow training to use the aed with a manakin.

I'm sure others will disagree with me on this but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the cheapest available like the samaritan pad (not the Samaritan PDU 400 Personal Defibrillation Unit, as this is a single use item so not very good in the work place) or the lifeline aed etc etc etc

The difference between Semi and Full Auto is that the semi Auto will detect shock required then prompt you to press a flashing button.  The fully auto will detect a shock needed and then give you a short countdown before delivering a shock.  Personally I want that confidence of the human factor after checking all clear to press the button. I would also recommend the G3 powerheart.

Try this company, I have used them in the past. They have a FREE Defib Trainer loan scheme, and also if you by a defib off them, they will let you keep the trainer free of charge. That means you will be training with the same defib that they will be using. If I remember rightly, the Defib is £995.+ vat. along with a free trainer, its not a bad deal.

http://www.welmedical.com/

Also Cardiac Science G3 is a good well established machine. as well as the Heartstart Fr2. There are many as stated above, down to personal choice really. All the best.

after training many people on many different defibs, delegates tend to find the Cardiac Science G3+ the most user friendly