Philips HeartStart Home Defibrilllator

Sudden cardiac arrest causes around 250,000 deaths each year in America. Statistics show that 70 percent of these happen in the home with someone else present. Given that a patient's chance of survival decreases by about 10 percent for each minute that passes after an arrest, the home defibrillator makes sense - especially for those in a high-risk category.

Philips designed the HeartStart Home Defibrillator specifically for ease of use in the home, basing the device on the more than 100,000 Philips automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in use on airlines, in airports, and throughout workplaces and around the world.

The unit includes calm voice instructions and CPR coaching synchronised with the speed of the responder's actions and regular self-tests of multiple system components make the HeartStart virtually maintenance free.

The HeartStart Home Defibrillator including owner's manual and instructional video is currently available via prescription in the US for US$2,295.