Absolute nonsense! I've never heard such drivel come from another sane human being...............

So if there's a good, factual justification for them, why has no-one presented it? Where are the figures that show that installing an AED in an office of five people is the economically sound decision? Where is the quantified business case? Why, instead, is it all emotional hand-wringing and why all the guff like "what if it's your life", "what if you go down with gripping pains", all of which rather overlooks the fact that it IS my life - I work in the office where I've decided it's not necessary to install an AED. In a business environment with finite resources, an AED is not necessary in every workplace, in my view.

In a previous existence I spent 12 years in the ambulance service on emergency crew so I've some practical experience of dealing with cardiac arrests. My overall feeling is that an AED is a useful piece of kit to have around since it gives the casualty a better chance of survival (even it that means in practice going from no chance to little chance). One other point which I think is worth bearing in mind is that - despite all the statistics - the human body can be very resilient and can do some surprising things. I still recall one case where we attended a gentleman who had been found lying on the floor unconscious by his wife. We attended within minutes of the call and started CPR immediately (no AED kit at that time but we did have a PneuPac resuscitator to support his breathing). After a fair amount of time with no response from him we started to evaluate the situation. He'd been down at least 20 minutes; there was no sign of life; and he wasn't responding. You win some, you lose some, and it seemed he'd lost. I was just putting the PneuPac away in its box when - to my astonishment - he took an unsupported breath! So we started again! A week later I bumped into him in Outpatients and he shook my hand. I didn't tell him how close he'd come to taking up residence in the mortuary fridge - just didn't seem appropriate somehow. The moral of the story: the will to live is very strong so don't be too quick to write somebody off as being beyond help. They deserve a fighting chance.