Posted by Joseph Ceccarelli on Mon, Aug 11, 2008
The American Heart Association has released some facts and statistics that are directly related to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. I want to share some of these facts with you. For the complete list you can visit the AHA site.
About 75 to 80 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at HOME. This means having someone trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) can make a substantial difference for the survival rates of a loved ones.
Approximately 310,000 of all annual adult coronary heart disease deaths in the United States are suffered outside the hospital setting and in hospital emergency departments. Of those deaths, about 166,200 are due to sudden cardiac arrest.
These are some very important reasons why we still need people to have CPR training. With response times for medical professionals, EMT's and Paramedics, taking anywhere from 6 to 20 plus minutes, depending on location and time of day, it now becomes vital for a bystander to help with CPR.
In addition, the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AED's) have also been playing a vital role in saving lives due to sudden cardiac arrest. This is why many companies and communitieshave introduced AED's to their safety programs.
In closing, I ask that you ask yourself one question, and if the answer is NO than please consider going through a training course.
If someone collapsed in front of you right now, would you know how to react?
Posted by Joseph Ceccarelli on Thu, Apr 17, 2008
It has been a long time coming. The Federal Government has taken another step to help the chance of survival for victims of sudden cardiac arrest.They have declared the first week of June "National Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Awareness Week".
In a staggering study it is found that there is a 95 percent mortality rate for over 300,000 Americans who are victims of sudden cardiac arrest each year.
It is also estimated that on average it takes 8 to 10 minutes for first responders(9-1-1) to reach a victim. This number can vary depending on your location. Why is this important?
The reason that this is so important is because after four minutes without oxygen going to your brain it will begin to die. After eight minutes it becomes the point of no return, irreversible brain death begins to occur. So even if the heart is restarted, the damage after eight minutes can never come back. This is why we need people to do CPR.
You can read the whole article that was released by clicking here.
This is an important step for making a difference. If people now become more aware of this situation and learn how YOU can make a difference than we can change these statistics and have a positive outcome for victims of sudden cardiac arrest. There are also programs out there that are now trying to make a difference such as:
With a lot of attention now on these issues we hope to start to create safer environment for everyone.
Posted by Joseph Ceccarelli on Tue, Apr 01, 2008
It is estimated that 350,000 people die suddenly each year from ventricular fibrillation (VF) to the heart. Often times doing just CPR is not enough. Currently, only 5% of sudden cardiac arrest victims survive in places where no AED programs have been established.
The AED (Automated External defibrillator)is designed to help in this very instance. An AED will shock the heart and hopes to get the heart to start to beat normally again. If an AED is attached to someone within the first three (3) minutes of cardiac arrest you may give upwards of a 74% chance of survival. CPR alone may only give a person around a 14% chance of survival.
These statistics are why there is a PAD program which is a Public Access to defibrillator program that puts these machines in such places as major airports, gyms & fitness facilities, subways, shopping malls high schools, etc.
Thank goodness for organizations out there like the Initial Life Support (ILS) Foundation which provide vendors with the capability to offer AED Grant programs.