Heart Experts Make Boosting Bystander CPR a Priority

TUESDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDay News) — People who suffer sudden
cardiac arrest are more likely to survive if 911 and EMS dispatchers help
bystanders assess victims and begin CPR immediately, says a new scientific
statement from the American Heart Association.

One of its main goals is to increase how often bystanders perform CPR
(cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

“I think it’s a call to arms,” statement lead author E. Brooke Lerner,
an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Medical College of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, said in an AHA news release. “It isn’t as common as
you think, that you call 911 and they tell you what to do.”

The statement includes four recommendations:

  • Dispatchers should assess whether someone has had a cardiac arrest and
    if so, tell callers how to administer CPR immediately.
  • Dispatchers should confidently give hands-only CPR instructions for
    adults who have had a cardiac arrest not caused by asphyxia (as in
    drowning).
  • Communities should measure performance of dispatchers and local EMS
    agencies, including how long it takes until CPR is begun.
  • Performance measurements should be part of a quality assurance program
    involving the entire emergency response system including EMS and
    hospitals.

The statement, released Jan. 9, was published simultaneously in the
journal Circulation.

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when a problem arises with electrical
impulses in the heart, causing it to stop beating normally. The survival
rate for people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital is
only 11 percent.

Each year in the United States, more than 380,000 people are assessed
by EMS for sudden cardiac arrest.

Rapid assessment and early CPR are among the links in the “Chain of
Survival” that can improve a person’s chances of surviving sudden cardiac
arrest. Other links include rapid defibrillation, effective advanced life
support and integrated post-cardiac arrest care.

People who don’t have CPR training are often afraid to help. But even
if a person is suffering from something other than cardiac arrest, “the
chances that you’re going to hurt somebody are very, very small,” Lerner
said. “And if you do nothing, they’re not getting the help that’s going to
save their life.”

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about sudden cardiac arrest.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes