Is the aim overall or individual survival?
• Philip Eisenburger, paternity (sabbatical) leave Vienna Is defibrillation with an AED feasible for trained or even untrained lay rescuers? If so, the application may bear a benefit for the individual patient and lay people should be allowed to purchase one, no matter how rare the applications are. The probability of an application (such as the 1 in 5 years quoted in the resuscitation guidelines) can only be related to the cost effectiveness of a program and the OVERALL benefit. The alternative would then be focusing on furhter shorting the response times of rescue teams or first responders (which should be the primary goal of any emergency medical services director anyway). If someone wants to buy a fire extinguisher for his house, is there a minimum probability of a fire required before he may be allowed to do so? Or should we just let people who think the price is worth the safety do what they want to do with their money (as in relatives of high risk patients)? A different issue is
