When Victor and Patricia Voinovich traveled from Cleveland to Washington for Inauguration Day, they weren't sure whether they'd be able to get sought-after tickets to the Ohio inaugural gala that night.

So they were delighted a few hours before party time when Victor's brother, Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), handed over what may turn out to be the two most important tickets the couple will ever get. Off they went to a
party for 4,500 at the Washington Convention Center.

Past the security check but before reaching the ballroom, Patricia Voinovich said, "Vic, honey," and suddenly collapsed on the floor with no pulse or respiration. Radios crackled, Secret Service officers knelt to resuscitate her and an emergency physician in a tuxedo came running.

As is true in nearly every cardiac arrest outside a hospital, the prospects were dismal. Then someone hooked Voinovich up to a portable device that shocked her heart back to life.

Voinovich's heart was pumping again thanks to a convention center staff member with an automated external defibrillator, a $4,000 machine similar to those used by hospital emergency physicians. The convention center
bought two of the machines in November, and dozens are being installed at public sites across the District this month in a national clinical trial.

The District is one of 25 large cities in the two-year study, which is supported by a $9.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and $10 million from manufacturers of the devices. The District
part of the study is being run by George Washington University.

Defibrillation is the only reliable way to restart a heart in cardiac arrest, a usually fatal event that causes brain damage or death within minutes. It is not a heart attack.

Yesterday, Voinovich, 54, was back home in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, marveling at her good fortune. She had some temporary trouble with short-term memory, but she escaped with no heart damage.

"I don't even remember getting dressed for the ball," she said.

Her husband remembers vividly, and he is grateful the senator arranged for them to be in a place swarming with emergency workers and equipped with an automated external defibrillator.

"She was stiff as a board -- basically lifeless," Victor Voinovich said. "If it weren't for the defibrillator, she'd have been a goner. Thank God the resources were there to bring her back."

At George Washington University Hospital, a cardiologist implanted a defibrillator in Patricia Voinovich's chest and released her Wednesday to be driven home. Doctors can't explain the cause of the incident because Voinovich's heart is undamaged and healthy.

The percentage of people who survive a cardiac arrest outside a hospital is minuscule, and her case illustrates the lifesaving potential of having the external defibrillators widely available, said Voinovich's cardiologist, Sung Lee.

"It was a great save," Lee said. "Usually what I see is, cardiac arrest patients come in and there's nothing I can offer because there's so much damage to the brain."