Defibrillator symbol

A heart with a lightning stroke on green, marking an AED.

Also known as: AED sign, Defib sign, Heart with a lightning bolt, Automated external defibrillator symbol, ISO 7010 E010

Everyday & digitalSafety & hazardStandard profile

Meanings

A heart crossed by a lightning stroke on green marks an automated external defibrillator. The green tells a bystander it is equipment for helping someone, and AEDs are designed to be usable by a passer-by with no training at all.

Common modern usageVerified fact
Marks the location of an automated external defibrillator, a device that analyses heart rhythm and delivers a shock if one is needed.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Combines a heart with a lightning stroke to show the device acts on the heart electrically, a composition designed to be readable at a glance in an emergency.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Is green because the device is a safe-condition provision, not a hazard. AEDs are built to be used by untrained bystanders and will not deliver a shock unless the rhythm calls for one.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Belongs to the safe-condition class of safety signs, drawn as a white pictogram on a green square or rectangle. Green marks where safety is — an exit, a route, equipment for helping someone — and never a hazard.
Contexts: Public information
Officially standardisedVerified fact
Is registered in ISO 7010 as E010, automated external defibrillator, drawn as a heart with a lightning flash inside it and a cross, white on green.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Moved outdoors as public-access defibrillation spread through the 2010s: the sign is now as likely to be on a yellow or green street cabinet, a converted telephone box or a shop front as on an internal wall, and national registries exist so that an emergency call handler can direct a caller to the nearest one.
2010s onward · Contexts: Medicine, Public information

Visual description

A white heart shape crossed by a jagged lightning stroke running diagonally through it, on a solid green square.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright
Colours: green, white

Part of the same system as: First aid symbol
Both are green safe-condition signs marking equipment for helping an injured person.

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Defibrillation
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
First aid
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
Safety sign
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
ISO 7010, Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs
International Organization for Standardization · retrieved 2026-08-02
Paywalled and NOT READ in full. Registered so records can state that a sign has a standard reference and a defined shape and colour — E003 for first aid, E010 for a defibrillator. The catalogue of registered signs and their reference numbers is public even where the standard text is not. See docs/paywalled-standards.md.

Last reviewed 2026-08-22