Wicked Local -- Melrose - “Clear!” Defibrillators, those electrical paddles used to jumpstart hearts, are familiar to most people today, either from television medical dramas or from their prominent placement in public locations — such as the defibrillator hanging in a case on the wall at Melrose City Hall. However, when, exactly, should a defibrillator be used? OmniMedics, a local 2-year-old company hopes to provide the answer with a device called a “smart” adhesive bandage — an adhesive strip containing a small computer chip that a person can wear daily and that will send a signal and alert anyone nearby that the person is suffering from sudden cardiac arrest, which is not the same as a heart attack — but more on that shortly.
