The first successful (open) human defibrillation with re¬covery of the patient was performed by Claude Beck in 1947 (Figure 6).46 A 14-year-old boy underwent surgery to repair a sternal deformity and, during wound closure, his pulse stopped, the chest was reopened, and he was found to be in ventricular fibrillation. Open cardiac massage was performed for 70 minutes, and, after 2 series of electric shocks were delivered to the heart, a regular pulse was restored, and no adverse neurological sequelae resulted. Paul Zoll recorded the first successful closed-chest human defibrillation in 1955 on a man with recurrent syncope and ventricular fibrillation,47 and Bernard Lown showed that direct current was superior to alternating current defibrillation in 1962.48 In 1979, the first portable automatic external defibrillator was developed, with a pharyngeal electrode for sensing, shocking electrodes on the abdomen and tongue, and a simple