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AED In Life Vest Shocks Heart

3,468 views · Published 9 October 2014 · 2:03 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2014 · News & Politics

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ERLANGER, Ky: (Liz Bonis) A man from Erlanger credits a high tech vest with saving his life. Doctors at Saint Elizabeth Healthcare say it helps restart the heart in those with a bad rhythm problem.
 
Medical Reporter Liz Bonis explains how it works in today's Medical Edge.
  
He's doing great now, but Don Dryer knows he's... "Very lucky"

Lucky because he got great care recently during a hospital stay for some very serious heart rhythm problems.

As part of his care, however, he left the hospital with something he says saved his life. It's sort of an interim therapy you might say, but in his case, it went off and it did what it was supposed to do. Dryer left the hospital wearing a life vest.

Dr, Sheldon Brownstein, St. Elizabeth Healthcare:
"It's an AED hooked up to a vest that you wear all the time, and that way it's monitoring you all the time while you are wearing it."

As this video, courtesy of Zoll Lifecor Corporation shows, it has two treatment pads on the back and one below the heart to shock it if it stops working. 

"We can actually have them wear the vest for the time it takes to transition them into needing the implantible device."

Doctor Sheldon Brownstein was part of the cardiology team that sent Dryer home with the life vest and, sure enough, his wife soon heard it go off.

Don Dryer, Patient:
"It shocked me while she was out of the room, which I didn't feel much."

The life vest also gives audible commands, so she knew to let it do its work.
Dryer knows... "It did save my life, no question."

Dryer now has a permanent heart rhythm device implanted. His heart is beating strong and beating happily, he says.

You see, this was Dryer's second heart attack, so there's also no question, he says..."So, God saved you twice? At least."

At Saint Elizabeth Physicians in Crestview Hills, Liz Bonis, Local 12 News.

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