Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for thousands of devices used by emergency medical personnel to monitor heart rhythms and to treat people having heart attacks.

FDA Recalls Thousands Of Defibrillators

The devices, the Lifepak 20 and Lifepak 20e External Defibrillator/Monitors have a failure of battery power that can result in them not working properly to aid patients having a heart attack, the FDA said in a statement.

About 42,943 of the devices were distributed from 2002 to 2007.

Lifepak began mailing out notification letters about the defects in May. Customers are being advised to keep the defibrillators in service and follow a daily operating checklist while service updates are scheduled.

For more information, go to http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/RecallsCorrectionsRemovals/ListofRecalls/ucm217933.htm