Twenty automated external defibrillators are now in place around the Frankfurt airport, according to Dr. Walter Gaber, the airport's medical director. Fourteen of the units are in passenger terminals and other areas with the most passenger traffic. An alarm sounds in the airport medical center when a defibrillator is removed from its storage unit, alerting trained medical personnel to the heart emergency.

The German Heart Foundation, the German Cardiology Society, and airport managers initiated the pilot program and hope it will prompt greater access to defibrillators throughout Germany.

"Paramedics generally arrive too late, since it usually takes three to five minutes for arrival of medical assistance after an emergency call is made," said Siegfried Steiger, whose nine-year-old son died as a result of cardiac arrest.

"I am convinced Björn would be alive today if we'd had access to a defibrillator in time," said Steiger, who has set up a foundation in Winnenden, Germany, to promote greater AED use. "His was a needless death, and I have made it my life's work to keep hearts beating."

Studies show that 300 lives might be saved each day in Germany by prompt use of defibrillators.