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ZOLL Medical and Laerdal Announce CPR Feedback Technology Licensing Agreement

CHELMSFORD, MA., STAVANGER, NORWAY and WAPPINGERS FALLS, NY– ZOLL Medical Corporation (NasdaqGS: ZOLL), a manufacturer of resuscitation devices and related software solutions, and Laerdal Medical AS, a Norwegian medical device maker, and its U.S. subsidiary, Laerdal Medical Corporation, announced today that they have entered into a technology licensing agreement.

Under the Agreement, ZOLL is licensing to Laerdal non-exclusive worldwide rights under patents owned by or licensed to ZOLL covering feedback in connection with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and Laerdal is granting to ZOLL options to license similar rights under patents owned by Laerdal.

CPR feedback, marketed as Real CPR Help® by ZOLL and QCPR® by Laerdal, is designed to help improve CPR quality during manual CPR by providing rescuers with immediate “real time” feedback related to compression depth and rate. Currently ZOLL and Laerdal, through its Alliance partner, Philips Healthcare, are the only two companies that provide this technology for rescuers. Recent studies have identified the need for CPR quality improvement, and positive clinical benefit with improved resuscitation rates when CPR is performed correctly. The latest American Heart Association and European Resuscitation Council Guidelines significantly underscore the need to improve the quality of manual CPR to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest.

Benjamin Abella M.D., M.Phil., lead author of last week’s American Heart Association Scientific Statement “Reducing Barriers for Implementation of Bystander-Initiated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation” published in Circulation Online, January 14, 2008, and a noted researcher in CPR performance at the Center for Resuscitation Science, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said that “Research has demonstrated that data on CPR performance as well as feedback to rescuers can be critically important to achieving successful outcomes during resuscitation. Technologies like the ZOLL and Laerdal devices that can measure and record performance are important capabilities that can have an impact on American Heart Association improvement goals affecting resuscitation success in the future.”

In addition to the technology agreements, ZOLL and Laerdal have also agreed to cooperate in activities to further the development of the overall market for CPR feedback technology, including activities such as funding of clinical studies, work to promote healthcare industry standards, and educational activities aimed at fostering CPR quality improvement.

Richard A. Packer, President and Chief Executive Officer of ZOLL, commented that “In addition to a modest royalty stream, this Agreement represents an important and constructive business arrangement for ZOLL, and demonstrates the importance of CPR feedback, which ZOLL and Laerdal have pioneered through Real CPR Help and QCPR technology. Both technologies are effective in helping improve the quality of CPR, and we believe this cooperation with Laerdal will further more widespread adoption of CPR feedback.”

“Both Laerdal and ZOLL have a goal of supplying rescuers with the best technology available to help them save more lives,” said Tor Morten Osmundsen, Chief Executive Officer of Laerdal Medical AS. “Laerdal, like ZOLL, has been a pioneer in the development of CPR feedback technology, and we believe that our agreement will help to promote the scope and benefits of this technology.”

About Real CPR Help

ZOLL first began offering Real CPR Help on its AED Plus® in 2002, three years prior to the emphasis placed on CPR feedback by the American Heart Association. It now offers the technology on both its product line of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and professional defibrillators. Real CPR Help lets rescuers see and hear how well they are performing the rate and depth of chest compressions during CPR.

About QCPR

Laerdal has been engaged in research and development of CPR feedback since the late 1990s, including research with centers in the US and Europe which has led to a number of landmark publications. The first QCPR product arising from this program was launched in late 2005 as part of the HeartStart MRx defibrillator manufactured by Laerdal’s long standing partner, Philips Healthcare. QCPR enables EMS providers to monitor the performance of both the ventilation and compression components of CPR, and provides real time audio and visual feedback to the rescuer to help improve that performance.

About ZOLL Medical Corporation

ZOLL Medical Corporation is committed to developing technologies that help advance the practice of resuscitation. With products for pacing, defibrillation, circulation, ventilation, and fluid resuscitation, ZOLL provides a comprehensive set of technologies, including Real CPR Help® and See-Thru CPR™, that help clinicians, EMS professionals, and lay rescuers resuscitate sudden cardiac arrest or trauma victims. ZOLL also designs and markets software that automates the documentation and management of both clinical and non-clinical information.

ZOLL markets and sells its products in more than 140 countries. The Company has direct operations, distributor networks, and business partners throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia, and Australia. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of ZOLL’s resuscitation product development. For more information, visit www.zoll.com.

About Laerdal Medical

Laerdal Medical, with its headquarters in Stavanger, Norway and subsidiaries in 23 countries, is one of the world’s leading providers of healthcare solutions, is dedicated to helping save lives with products and services for Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support, Patient Care, Self-Directed Learning, Medical Education, Defibrillation, Airway Management and Spinal Immobilization. Laerdal serves emergency care providers and educators from the lay rescuer to the medical professional. For more information, visit www.laerdal.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release, including statements regarding the future business of the Company, and other statements contained herein regarding matters that are not historical facts, are “forward-looking” statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those factors discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on December 13, 2007. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this press release, and the Company disavows any obligation to update or supplement those statements in the event of any changes in the facts, circumstances, or expectations that underlie those statements.

Copyright © 2008 ZOLL Medical Corporation, Laerdal Medical AS and Laerdal Medical Corporation. All rights reserved. ZOLL, AED Plus and Real CPR Help are registered trademarks of ZOLL Medical Corporation. See-Thru CPR is a trademark of ZOLL Medical Corporation. Laerdal and QCPR are registered trademarks of Laerdal Medical AS and Laerdal Medical Corporation. All product names are the property of their respective owners.

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