CHICAGO — Sudden cardiac arrest statistics are chilling. In the United States, 350,000 people’s heartbeats, breathing, pulse, and blood circulation will all halt outside hospitals this year, seemingly out of the blue. These are not heart attacks. Only 1 in 10 people will survive them.
CPR and defibrillation can save their lives (and brains), but that depends on bystanders and emergency response systems being both nearby and prepared to step in — immediately. Survival chances drop by 10% for every minute that goes by without CPR.
