Heart attack is the leading cause of death in the United States. However CPR is a proven way to resuscitate, but most untrained bystanders hesitate to help a cardiac arrest victim. Research has shown that when bystanders have CPR training, they are much more likely to take action. Therefore the American Heart Association is making a push to make cardiopulmonary resuscitation training mandatory for high school students.

Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States. Emergency medical personnel respond to nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the United States annually, so CPR can help save many of these victims’ lives.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a combination of rescue breathing and chest compressions delivered to victims thought to be in cardiac arrest. When cardiac arrest occurs, the heart stops pumping blood. CPR can support a small amount of blood flow to the heart and brain to “buy time” until normal heart function is restored.

Cardiac arrest is often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF). When VF develops, the heart quivers and doesn’t pump blood. The victim in VF cardiac arrest needs CPR and delivery of a shock to the heart, called defibrillation. Defibrillation eliminates the abnormal VF heart rhythm and allows the normal rhythm to resume. Defibrillation is not effective for all forms of cardiac arrest but it is effective to treat VF, the most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest.

Mary Fran Hazinski, R.N., M.S.N., co-author of the advisory and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee says:

“Bystander CPR can double or triple survival from cardiac arrest. Currently, only about 30 percent of victims of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest receive any type of CPR. Training of all secondary education students will add a million trained rescuers to the population every few years. Those students will be ready, willing and able to act for many years to come, whenever they witness an emergency within the community.”

Most sudden cardiac arrests occur at home, so students trained as rescuers may also help save lives there. In addition, trained students could also respond to cardiac arrests at school and at public places such as malls, health clubs, or swimming pools, or at events such as family reunions.

Hazinski continues:

“Bystanders who phone 911 and begin CPR provide the first essential links in a strong, interdependent chain of survival. With activation of 911, early bystander CPR, rapid defibrillation, effective advanced life support and integrated post-resuscitation care, survival rates following sudden cardiac arrest can exceed 50 percent. That’s dramatically higher than the 7 percent to 9 percent average survival rate in the U.S. However, nothing is going to happen unless there’s a bystander who recognizes the arrest, phones 911 and begins CPR to start that chain of survival. Research has shown that any attempt at CPR can improve the odds of survival for someone who has a cardiac arrest.”

Helzinski would like to see such training become mandatory:

“Many schools have overcome barriers to training and begun teaching CPR, but I think a legislative mandate and support for training in schools would go a long way.”

Co-authors are: Diana Cave, R.N., M.S.N.; Tom P. Aufderheide, M.D.; Jeff Beeson, M.D.; Alison Ellison, B.S.N.; Andrew Gregory, M.D.; Loren F. Hiratzka, M.D.; Keith Lurie, M.D.; Laurie J. Morrison, M.D., M.Sc.; Vincent N. Mosesso, Jr., M.D.; Vinay Nadkarni, M.D.; Jerry Potts, Ph.D.; Ricardo A. Samson, M.D.; Michael Sayre, M.D.; and Stephen M. Schexnayder, M.D.

SOURCE: American Heart Association

Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.