from Journal of the American Medical Association
Cardiac arrest—that is out-of-hospital cardiac arrest--results in low survival rates and approximately two hundred thousand deaths each year in this country. Two articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association say early CPR and use of automated external defibrillators are changing that, but not quickly enough. Authors suggest improving cardiac outcomes by strengthening first-responder programs in addition to increasing the number of bystanders who can perform CPR, including those being coached by emergency dispatchers. They say this is particularly important for cardiac arrests that occur in residential areas of long emergency response time. Current CPR with chest compression only is much easier to learn and easier to perform.