"There are now 1.5 million AEDs deployed nationwide, five for each of the 300 000 people in the country who need them every year." [...] "Yet despite the enor

"There are now 1.5 million AEDs deployed nationwide, five for each of the 300 000 people in the country who need them every year." [...] "Yet despite the enormous investment in these AEDs, the death rate from sudden cardiac arrest is no better than it was 20 years ago. It still kills more Americans than lung, breast, and prostate cancers and AIDS combined. Worldwide, it kills about 7 million people a year." [...] "In 1998, Washington state began a citizen defibrillation program that included advertising, public training sessions, and the creation of a detailed registry of AED locations around the state. The survival rate for witnessed sudden cardiac arrest in Seattle is now more than 45 percent, compared with less than 0.5 percent in Detroit and 4 percent nationwide."