Policy Text
Kern County Sheriff’s Office
Policies and Procedures
TITLE:
Automated External Defibrillator
NO: P-0200
APPROVED: Donny Youngblood, Sheriff-Coroner
EFFECTIVE:
October 28, 2014
REVIEWED:
June 19, 2025
REVISED:
June 19, 2025
UPDATED:
June 19, 2025
P-0200-1
POLICY - PURPOSE AND SCOPE:
The purpose of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Automatic External Defibrillation
(PSAED) Program is to assist with the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) of a person who is
in cardiac distress. Most cases of sudden cardiac arrest result from ventricular fibrillation. This is
a rapid and unsynchronized heart rhythm starting in the heart’s lower pumping chambers (the
ventricles). In distress, the heart must be “defibrillated” quickly because a patient’s chance of
surviving drops by 7 to 10 percent for every minute a normal heartbeat is not restored.
Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) make it possible for more people to respond to a medical
emergency