Unfortunately the technology of defibrillation has not increased along with medical technology in general. It is difficult to place the pads in the wrong place but if you do they will not lead to the same benefit and may cause harm (besides the person dying due to their heart rhythm disturbance) due to 'electrical burns'. Returning to the question of technology it was clear 20 years ago that placing 1 pad anteriorly (on the chest) and 1 posteriorly (on the back) with the ability to sense and precisely limit the electrical charge delivered across the thorax (chest cavity) worked best but this technology is not yet available. It should be mentioned that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) does little if anything and its continued universal instruction and utilization may not be tolerated although there is an interesting history as to how it came to be about and why it became so popular even in the absence of any data or study demonstrating benefit. If you are interested please let me know johnerussomd@jhu.edu