Can a defibrillator kill you?

The short answer is no, a defibrillator cannot kill you. They are designed to save lives and have been developed over many years by scientists who specialise in cardiovascular care.

Manufactured with ease of use in mind, defibrillators can be used by anybody regardless of whether they have medical training or not. With audio and visual prompts, defibrillators guide the user through every step of the process to ensure there is full support throughout. This means both a passer by and paramedic can both deliver life saving care.

To use a defibrillator, you simply need to place the electrode pads on the chest of someone who is suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. Symptoms of a cardiac arrest include unconsciousness, sudden collapse and no breathing or pulse. From here, the defibrillator will automatically scan the hearts rhythm and determine whether a shock is needed. If a shock is needed, your defibrillator will do this for you. An automatic defibrillator will provide a shock without you needing to press any buttons whereas a semi-automatic defibrillator will alert you to press a button where it will then deliver a shock.

The shock that a defibrillator gives is designed to encourage the heart to start beating on it’s own again at it’s natural pace. To do this, the shock will never be high enough to cause any harm or death. Equally, a defibrillator will never deliver a shock unless one is needed. This means that you cannot cause additional harm to anybody via a defibrillator.

There are defibrillators that are designed for children which have smaller electrode pads so that the shock is lower. These should be used on children under the age of 8 or those below 25kg.

It’s important to know that when using a defibrillator you are only taking steps to save somebodies life. If someone around you suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, you must call 999, find your nearest defibrillator and deliver CPR.