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When the excitement of the casino proves too much and gamblers fall victim to
a heart attack, they are much more likely to live if croupiers have a
defibrillator handy. Terence Valenzuela and his colleagues at the University of
Arizona report in The New England Journal of Medicine (vol 343, p 1206) that of
105 customers treated with defibrillators, more than half survived. Only 2 to 5
per cent of people who have heart attacks outside hospital are so lucky. Casino
staff took an average of 4.4 minutes to reach patients, whereas it took trained
paramedics an average of 10 minutes to arrive at the scene.