A Heart-Healthy Dartmouth
At some point in the process of getting to know a new friend here at Dartmouth, I always end up having an awkward conversation explaining to him or her why I have a two-by-two-inch metal box in my chest. "It's like a pacemaker," I say. "Except it only monitors the heart, and if anything bad happens it'll shock me with 700V of electricity." If this fails to make sense, I try to make the connection between my device and automated external defibrillators. AEDs are clever devices designed for any Good Samaritan to use as a first response to sudden cardiac arrest, or heart failure. They are designed so simply that a child could use them; the machine prompts you to affix two pads to someone's chest, takes over and decides if there is a problem, and then administers a shock to correct one if there is. So my box is like one of those boxes; I just carry it around with me all the time.