The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Penn professor’s heart stopped at restaurant that had no defibrillator. Few are equipped with the lifesaving devices

Kevin Volpp’s heart stopped beating while he was eating at a Seasons 52 restaurant, yet he survived after a dinner companion performed CPR and an ambulance crew arrived with an automated external defibrillator — an AED.

But after he recovered, Volpp was dismayed to learn that the restaurant itself was not equipped with such a device. A Penn Medicine researcher who studies heart disease — the very condition that sent him to the hospital — Volpp came to suspect most other restaurants were without the lifesaving technology.

He was right.

The Inquirer asked the top 12 chain restaurants, as measured by sales in 2019, and none said they had a policy of installing AEDs. Most failed to respond to multiple emails; several said AEDs were installed in restaurants only where required by state or local laws.