Do you know where your AED is?

An unidentified woman at the airport in Duluth is alive today, because someone knew where an automatic external defibrillator was located and used it to restart her heart.

Many companies — I think mine is one of them, but I’m not entirely sure — have AEDs tucked into a wall somewhere, but they’re not helpful if people don’t know where they are.

New Zealand has the right idea. There, volunteers have set up a directory of AED locations.

A company makes a wireless product that will automatically locate a nearby AED, but the $399 product is mostly intended for emergency responders and most of them already carry a defibrillator.

Then there’s the matter of how to use the AED if you can find one. When your cubicle neighbor is toes up, you don’t want to be reading instructions. Maybe this will help: