Many people have heart attacks at awkward and inconsiderate times, such as during a rock concert or the All-Ireland final, but surely the most selfish moment of all for cardiac arrest is on board an aeroplane.
The pilot has to abandon the journey and find a quick place to land, the in-flight movie and sometimes even the distribution of alcoholic beverages is suspended, and - if the plane is full - another passenger may have to sit beside a very sick person until landing.
Yet people persist in having heart attacks, and even dying, on board aircraft.
Until now. With the new range of portable defibrillators, airlines and their passengers can say goodbye to that cardiac calamity - and save lives too! Heart specialists say that if a patient's blood flow is disrupted for more than around 10 minutes, his or her chances of survival are very slim. The defibrillator can be pressed into action within seconds.
All a member of the cabin crew needs to do is follow the simple visual and audio instructions on the handheld unit. The machine will automatically monitor the patient's heart rate, determine how much of a shock to deliver, and zap that heart back into motion.
The Hewlett-Packard HeartStream ForeRunner (pictured above) and other portable defibrillators cost around £2,000 (€2,540), weigh as little as 2 kg and are about half the size of a laptop computer.
