Defibrillator is lifesaver at home — so is CPR

CHICAGO — Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis, but so can CPR and at a much lower cost. That's the bottom line from the first test of using these heart-shocking devices in the home.

The devices worked. But so few people in the study were stricken at home, and CPR by spouses in the comparison group was so good, that the 7,000-person study wound up being be too small to prove that a defibrillator can improve survival.

It did for South Carolinian James Kennedy. For three years, his family lugged one to the grocery store, to church and on trips. "Thank God we had it" last August, when his daughter used it to save his life at home, said Kennedy's wife, Debra.

Others also benefited — seven friends and neighbors of people in the study. They got a lifesaving heart shock, too.

"There's no downside" to having a home defibrillator, said study leader Dr. Gust Bardy of the Seattle Institute for Cardiac Research.

However, they cost $1,000 or more. And others say health dollars are better spent boosting CPR training. Arguments to expand access to defibrillators "have an emotional quality" not justified by cost and success rates, said Dr. David Callans of the University of Pennsylvania.

He wrote an editorial that the New England Journal of Medicine published on the Internet along with the study. Results also were given Tuesday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago.

They come a day after the American Heart Association changed guidelines to recommend hands-only CPR — pressing vigorously on a victim's chest until help arrives.

Cardiac arrest happens when the heart beats chaotically. Automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, can shock it back into normal rhythm, and have been successfully used by bystanders in airports, casinos and other public places.

However, three-fourths of the 166,000 cardiac arrests that occur outside hospitals each year happen at home, and only 2 percent of victims survive. One home defibrillator, made by a Seattle-based division of Philips Healthcare, weighs less than four pounds and is sold on the Internet for as little as $1,200.