The result of sudden cardiac arrest that occurs outside hospital remains significantly low. This is a predominant fact in ethnic neighborhoods and can be attributed to the fact that educational communication about bystander CPR isn’t being effectively passed through to the people. According to the AHA, the system isn’t particular made to effectively penetrate into the society or reach the target audience.
The rates of survival of cardiac arrest that occur outside hospital settings are different in each geographical area. It’s 16%, for example, at Seattle and 0.2% in Detroit. Approximately, 25% of the bystanders are often involved in administering CPR with about 15% of deaths in the United States happening as a result of the 360,000 cardiac arrest that occur outside hospital settings.
Bystanders and saving lives of cardiac arrest victims
Only one life is saved out of 30 when a bystander attempts CPR. This is according to an advisory author by the name Comilla Sasson, who is a MD at the University of Colorado in Denver. Based on her advisory, there has been a remarkable improvement on survival rates in communities that have already started receiving bystander CPR training. This goes to show that the training can help improve survival rate of victims who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest while outside hospital settings. Comilla and her colleagues recommended that there was need for people to administer CPR even after they had called 911. It’s also important that EMS services be deployed to the scene as soon as possible.
Bystanders not only fail to respond to a victim but more often than not fail to recognize whether a person is having a cardiac arrest. They also have a phobia of getting close and doing mouth to mouth according to some of the researchers. They are mostly filled with uncertainty of their ability to help that person. A lot of them often think that they’ll make the situation worse.
Recommendations that need to be further implemented
The AHA has revised some of the guidelines though this has just contributed too little. The change from mouth to mouth to hands only CPR was welcomed but it’s still hasn’t boosted the confidence of bystanders. They also requested 911 dispatchers to talk some of the bystanders through the process of administering CPR while the paramedics arrive.
AHA called for public education about CPR. This included making it part of the school curriculum where kids would learn how to administer CPR. The diversity of cultures and race needed to be put into consideration when deploying the bystander CPR training. This was because there are different languages and lifestyles. Blacks and Latinos, for example, have a very low survival rate when suffering from sudden cardiac arrest outside hospital settings as compared to whites. This could be attributed to the fact that bystanders and paramedics respond even slower.
They should be taught about the importance of doing something rather than doing nothing. A lot of people refused to get involved fearing legal actions should the victim die or get brain damage.
