The Hidden Heart Attack Weapon

MariaCatEMT

Forum Asst. Chief
501
0
0
The Hidden Heart Attack Weapon

Your best chance of surviving cardiac arrest outside a hospital will be if someone near you knows cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to a new Ontario study.

In fact, boosting CPR training and awareness would save more lives than increasing the number of specially trained paramedics, concludes the study, published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

READ MORE
 

rescuecpt

Community Leader Emeritus
2,088
1
0
While I agree 100% that public instruction in CPR is extremely important, I don't really like the way the article was written up (most likely by a non-medical person).

But cardiac arrest patients were almost four times more likely to survive if a bystander started CPR, Stiell said yesterday. "This is the first study anywhere to clearly demonstrate the importance and the power of bystander CPR."

Four times more likely than what? Than people who don't get CPR? No duh. CPR should be started immediately upon loss of a pulse, regardless of whether it's your neighbor or a doctor doing it.

Researchers anticipated that advanced paramedic training would have an equally positive effect on cardiac arrest patients, but that defibrillators probably wouldn't, Stiell said.

True, because only V-Fib and pulseless V-Tach are shockable rhythms. PEA and Asystole are not shockable - drugs and CPR are your only option pre-hospital.
 
Top