Automated external defibrillators are being attributed to saving two lives in Saskatoon this week over just a 17-hour period.

An 83-year-old woman went into cardiac arrest Monday night while attending a Brent Butt comedy show at TCU Place. Staff used an AED, a portable machine that sends an electric shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm, to revive her.

The woman required just one shock from the AED before she began to breathe and her pulse returned, according to MD Ambulance. Paramedics arrived shortly after and the woman was sent to Royal University Hospital in stable condition.

Several hours later, on Tuesday, a 79-year-old man went into cardiac arrest while playing hockey at the Schroh Arena on Lorne Avenue. He was revived on the ice after teammates shocked him three times with an AED.

The man was in stable condition as he was transported to RUH.

“Two cardiac arrest calls in less than 24 hours could have been devastating for two families, but thanks to the Saskatoon Heart Safe Program two patients who suffered cardiac arrests, in two separate locations, 17 hours apart, both survived because of the program and help from bystanders,” said MD Ambulance spokesperson Troy Davies.

MD Ambulance alongside the Saskatoon Health Region and the Saskatchewan Blue Cross monitor over 700 AEDs located throughout the city as part of the Heart Safe program.

The electronic devices have saved 13 lives in Saskatoon since the program was started in 2001.