Biomed story songThe first mobile coronary care unit (portable defibrillator)
The Belfast Ambulance
Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1966. Heart attack patients were dying before they reached hospital, so two cardiologists sent the hospital to them: an ambulance with a doctor, a nurse and a defibrillator run from car batteries.
A biomed story song. Diagrams are simplified to tell the story; it is not a service procedure.
The story behind it: The first mobile coronary care unit (portable defibrillator)
In the 1960s, many deaths from heart attack happened in the first hour, often from a dangerous heart rhythm, ventricular fibrillation, before the patient reached a coronary care ward. At the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, cardiologists Frank Pantridge and John Geddes decided to bring coronary care to the patient instead.
Their mobile coronary care unit went into service in January 1966: an ambulance carrying a doctor, a nurse and a defibrillator powered from car batteries, which weighed around seventy kilograms. They reported their results in The Lancet in 1967. Pantridge went on to push for smaller portable defibrillators, an idea that leads to the automated external defibrillators found in public places today.
Reviewed November 1, 2026. General information, not a service procedure: follow the manufacturer's instructions and your facility's policy.
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