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Pennsylvania Man Survives Heart Attack with Life-Saving Vest
AED vest is able to detect when the person wearing it has a heart attack
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WNEP - A man from Luzerne County who was having a heart attack was saved by a vest that literally shocked him back to life.
Brian Jennings almost died in March, but the 58-year-old man from Hanover Township was wearing a life vest. It's able to detect when the person wearing it has a heart attack and sends a powerful shock, essentially zapping them back to life.
"It felt like a stainless steel plate falling on me from about 50 feet in the air. It was really powerful," Jennings recalled.
Doctors said Jennings is one of three heart patients at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital who have had their lives saved by the vest.
"He had two cardiac arrests essentially where people actually don't survive if they are not resuscitated immediately and the kind of cardiac arrest he had, the chance of survival goes down by 10 percent every minute," explained cardiologist Dr. Gopi Dandamudi.
The doctor said the vest is especially critical in life saving for folks like Jennings who live alone.
With the traditional defibrillator somebody needs to work it. With the vest, everything is automatic.
Doctors said the technology continues to improve and in the future the vest will shrink to the size of a patch. Jennings said he is in great health and he owes it all to a piece of technology.
"Very grateful. It's just wonderful they can do these things for people nowadays," Jennings added.
Copyright © 2011, WNEP-TV
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