Portable defibrillators that have jolted thousands of hearts back to life in airports, malls and homes are often subject to product recalls, finds a decade-long study of the complex devices.
"The chances that your [automated external defibrillator] would be recalled in any given year was 1 in 20. The chances that your [device] would be recalled during the entire 10-year study period was 1 in 5," said Dr. William Maisel of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who reviewed Food and Drug Administration advisories on the devices.
