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More than 160,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the U.S., 80% of them at home. Resuscitation is successful in only about 2% of cases. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are effective when applied early in patients with shockable rhythms. The multinational Home Automated External Defibrillator Trial (HAT) randomized 7000 patients with previous anterior myocardial infarction who were not candidates for implanted cardioverter-defibrillators to receive one of two responses to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In the control group, someone living in the patient’s house was trained to promptly call 911 and then to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the AED group, someone living in the house was trained to first use …