With an incidence of 130,000 per year, sudden cardiac death is one of the most frequent causes of death in Germany. Each day 350 patients die from cardiac arrest. Survival depends essentially on the time delay before professional help arrives and sufficient resuscitation measures have been started. At present, survival of sudden cardiac death is reported to be in the range of 5-8%. In preclinical conditions, many studies have already shown a successful use of automated external defibrillators (AED) by first responders even if they are lay persons. Even in large hospitals with maximum care facilities, delays before beginning resuscitation measures can occur which results in a dramatic reduction of the survival rate. Therefore, it seems reasonable to use AED in large hospitals. For implementation, training programmes and a nationally standardized documentation of resuscitation events should be promoted.