Our church is looking to buy some AEDs. I’m looking for advice and opinions from medical professionals and people who have used AEDs in the “real world”. Looking for ease of use and a quality product.
The medics on protection details for Ambassadors have Lifepak 1000s. Not sure how much that means, but it’s something.
I don’t think you’re likely to make a truly bad choice in the States, due to the nature of product approval. The mainstream ones are very user-friendly and effective.
We also use a lifepak product for our monitors and AEDs. Whatever your church goes with, get the one that offers real-time coaching. You want something that offers a metronome pace, tells you when to recycle compressors, and check for pulse. Hopefully your product will have plenty of practice pads available so that your church members can practice placing pads on a mannequin during their CPR recertification. You will also need pads for infants and pediatric patients. Glad you’re getting one. Proven lifesaver.
Metronome and change compressors prompting would definitely be good to have. Not sure which ones offer that.
I wouldn’t let pulse check prompts sway my purchase decision, as there is no harm in continuing compressions, and compressions are often useful even if electrical activity in the heart is detected. Everytime you stop for a pulse check, cardiac perfusion drops to zero, and takes time to rise again after compressions are resumed.
Practice devices should be budgeted for, if possible, instead of trying to train with live devices. Otherwise, AHA CPR classes should have them, and anyone pre-designated as a layperson first responder should have that training.