In a recent statistical survey, it was revealed that sudden cardiac arrest or SCA is much attributed to as much as 325,000 deaths in the US per year. This simply means that SCA can cause the death of almost 1,000 people a day or 1 person in every two minutes. The said survey also stated that people suffering from a heart disorder such as congestive heart failure and those that have a history of heart attack are vulnerable to life-threatening form of cardiac arrest. It was then found out that more or less 95 percent of SCA victims lose their lives before they reach a medical facility or acquire any source of immediate remedy. With that said, it is very important for any person to have at least some knowledge on what to do whenever someone with them suddenly experiences cardiac arrest.
You are probably familiar with the first aid procedure called CPR, which is usually done on people caught by cardiac arrest and other forms of sudden heart failure. Basically, cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is applied to manually pump oxygenated blood to the brain, lungs, and other vital parts of the body when the heart stops beating. This must be done to prevent, or at least delay, the death of the brain cells that leads to permanent brain damage and death. In most cases, a CPR procedure for a non-CPR-expert individual should merely involve chest compression, which is typically rated at above 100 5-cm deep compressions per minute. It is also very important to apply it immediately to a sudden cardiac arrest victim, even though you are not sure if you can do it perfectly. As long as you do it reasonably and there is no other way to obtain immediate assistance, you have to bear in mind that it is much better to apply an imperfect CPR than to do nothing at all.
Although sudden cardiac arrest and heart attack have similar form of threat to a person’s life, these two heart disorders are technically different from each other. SCA is a heart malfunction caused by ventricular fibrillation wherein the heart is no longer capable of pumping blood throughout the body. On the other hand, heart attack is scientifically called as myocardial infraction. This heart condition is typically takes place when there is a blockage in a blood vessel that interrupts the blood flow to and from the heart. As a result, an infarct or area of dead heart muscle will occur. In any of these forms of sudden heart disorder, CPR has been considered as the most effective means of increasing the chance of the victim to survive the situation. The type of CPR that will provide the utmost remedy to the problem varies, however.
Currently, the American Heart Association (AHA) conducts CPR training to more than 12 million in a number of training centers for safety and emergency medicine. Among these centers is Citywide, an Illinois-based company composed of AHA-accredited professionals for CPR training and other life-saving courses.
If you are interested in CPR training, please take a look to check our website.
