Cardiac Arrest - things you should know

Interesting facts you should know:

1) Sudden cardiac arrest claims about 340,000 lives each year. This is about 930 every day nationwide.

2) 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims do not recover and die.

3) For every minute a cardiac arrest victim is not defibrillated, his or her chances of survival declines 7-10 percent.

4) Brain death starts to occur in just four to six minutes after someone experiences sudden cardiac arrest.

5) If defibrillation can be performed within the first 1-3 minutes, there is a 70-80 percent chance of survival.

6) Cardiac arrest is caused by a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm that can result from heart attack, respiratory arrest, electrocution, drowning, choking or trauma, or it can have no known cause.

7) The use of effective bystander CPR nearly doubles a victim’s chance for surviving sudden cardiac arrest.

by John G Collett

John delivers English First Aid Training courses for First Aid Greece. John has experience in teaching First Aid, Fire Safety and lifeguard training.