Information about CPR WHY LEARN CPR? Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they can happen to anyone at any time. Nearly 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home. Many victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors. Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when electrical impulses in the heart become rapid or chaotic, which causes the heart to suddenly stop beating. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked. A heart attack may cause cardiac arrest. WHO CAN YOU SAVE WITH CPR? The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be a loved one. Four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home. Statistically speaking, if called on to administer CPR in an emergency, the life you save is likely to be someone at home: a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend. African-Americans are almost twice as likely to experience cardiac arrest at home, work or in another public location than Caucasians, and their survival rates are twice as poor as for Caucasians. WHY TAKE ACTION? Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths. Effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, but only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Sadly, less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. The American Heart Association trains more than 12 million people in CPR annually, to equip Americans with the skills they need to perform bystander CPR.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:18:27 +0000
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