Russell Setright Naturopath

CPR SAVES LIVES

We could save 70 per cent of the 30,000 Australian who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest with good CPR and quick access to a defibrillator (AED) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardiac arrest is caused by an abnormal heart rhythm, ie, by an arrhythmia, usually asystole or ventricular fibrillation, which causes the heart to stop beating. The lack of heartbeat causes a drop in blood pressure and therefore the brain cells do not get enough blood supply, resulting in a sudden loss of consciousness (syncope) and death within minutes.

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We spend thousands on Police to stop the road toll, we put up shark nets to reduce shark attack and yet with over 70 per cent of the 30,000 Sudden Cardiac Arrests occurring out of hospital there is no extra government money to help save the lives of our loved ones and these include younger adults and children as well.

 

In a resent study, researchers looked at 30-day survival for patients who had cardiac arrests outside of a hospital between 2005 and 2011.When the ambulance arrived within five minutes, 14.5 percent of patients in the bystander CPR group survived at least 30 days, compared with 6.3 percent in the group that didn't get this help. For ambulance arrival times up to ten minutes, 6.7 percent in the CPR group and 2.2 percent of the other patients survived. If the ambulance took more than 13 minutes, the survival rate was 3.7 percent in the CPR group and 1.5 percent for the others .

It should be noted that these times are from the call to 000 and not time of arrest which may have been minutes longer.

CPR alone more than doubles the survival rate. And if we apply an AED in less than 5 minutes then the survival rate is greatly increased with studies stating over 70 percent.

Talk to the experts at Emergency Medics Australia about nationally accredited training and equipment. www.firstaideventmedics.com