Every minute counts with sudden cardiac arrest

The American Heart Association website notes that “anyone can learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and everyone should!” Rabbi Elozer Kanner, coordinator of Chevrah Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County concurs. ”Everybody should take these courses. We are all responsible for one another,” he said. “No one knows when they might witness a cardiac arrest.”

Knowing how to use an AED and CPR and cutting the down time between a cardiac arrest and the beginning of resuscitation increases the chances of survival, he said. “It’s very dramatic,” he stressed regarding the statistics from “a minute to ten minutes to see what a delay in time means.”

He added that, “it’s not difficult to learn, it’s not complicated to master the AED and CPR. It’s something everybody should know.”

In Seattle, Washington, where Rabbi Kanner noted that CPR education is widespread “deaths from cardiac arrest changed dramatically.”

He stressed that CPR is for someone whose heart is not beating. Cardiac arrest is when the heart is not beating and the person is not breathing. “CPR attempts to do, temporarily, the breaths for the person and the beats for the person,” he explained.

Some statistics:

*88% of cardiac arrests happen at home

*Proper CPR right after cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival *Only 32% of victims get CPR from a bystander

*Less than 8% of cardiac arrest victims outside of a hospital survive

*If you save a life with CPR it is most likely to be someone at home, a family member or friend

The AHA’s “chain of survival” is early access, early CPR, early defibrillation and early advanced care. With every minute after the onset of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) chances of survival drops by seven to ten percent. Brain damage and permanent death commences within four to six minutes. Ten minutes after SCA, resuscitation attempts rarely succeed.

Take a course. Save a life.

Visit the American Heart Association site for more information.