Defibrillators

## What matters on a refurbished defibrillator

Delivered energy is the whole question. A defibrillator that discharges below its setting is worse than no defibrillator, because it will be trusted. Ask for the energy verification record at several settings across the range, not a single reading.

Then ask about the battery and the pads. Both are dated consumables. Pads in particular have an expiry printed on the packet, and a unit supplied with expired pads is not ready for use no matter how well the chassis was refurbished.

## Manual, AED, or both

A manual defibrillator belongs where there is someone trained to read a rhythm. An AED belongs everywhere else — a clinic corridor, a dental surgery, a gym. They are not interchangeable and the cheaper one is often the wrong one.

Tell us where it will live and who will use it, and we will tell you what to put there.