CPR
CPR Facts and Statistics
- About 80 percent of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in private residential settings, so being trained to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can mean the difference between life and death for a loved one.
- Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after cardiac arrest, can double a victim’s chance of survival.
- CPR helps maintain vital blood flow to the heart and brain and increases the amount of time that an electric shock from a defibrillator can be effective.
- Approximately 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.
- Death from sudden cardiac arrest is not inevitable. If more people knew CPR, more lives could be saved.
- Brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no CPR and defibrillation occurs during that time.
- If bystander CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival fall 7 percent to 10 percent for every minute of delay until defibrillation. Few attempts at resuscitation are successful if CPR and defibrillation are not provided within minutes of collapse.
- Coronary heart disease accounts for about 446,000 of the over 864,000 adults who die each year as a result of cardiovascular disease.
- There are 294,851 emergency medical services-treated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests annually in the United States.
- There are about 138,000 coronary heart disease deaths within one hour of symptom onset each year in the United States.
- Sudden cardiac arrest is most often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF). Cardiac arrest can also occur after the onset of a heart attack or as a result of electrocution or near-drowning.
- When sudden cardiac arrest occurs, the victim collapses, becomes unresponsive to gentle shaking, stops normal breathing and after two rescue breaths, still isn’t breathing normally, coughing or moving.
Source: American Heart Association
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