- About 80% of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home, so being trained can mean the difference between life and death for a friend or family member.
- Effective bystander CPR, if started right away, can double a victim’s chance of survival and recovery.
- CPR helps maintain vital blood flow to the brain and heart and increases the amount of time that a shock from a AED can be effective.
- Around 95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching definitive care at the hospital.
- If more people knew CPR, more lives could be saved.
- Brain death starts to occur 4 to 6 minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no CPR and defibrillation occurs during that time. The average Indiana response time is around 6.31 minutes (2005-2007 study transporting units).
- If bystander CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival fall around 10% for every minute of delay until defibrillation.
- There are close to 300,000 emergency medical services-treated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests annually in the United States.
- Sudden cardiac arrest is most often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF). One treatment for this condition is use of an AED and CPR.
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