• Sudden cardiac arrest is caused by a life-threatening
abnormal heart rhythm that can result from heart attack, respiratory
arrest, electrocution, drowning, choking or trauma, or it can
have no known cause.
• The most common cause for patients to die from cardiac
arrest is coronary heart disease.
• Louisiana’s heart disease death rate is 10
percent higher than the national average.
• Cardiovascular disease is not limited to the elderly.
In 2000, 21 percent of Louisianans who died from the disease
were younger than 65 years old.
• Brain death starts to occur within four to six minutes
in a cardiac arrest victim.
• Bystander CPR helps maintain vital blood flow to
the head and brain until defibrillation can be administered.
• Survival is directly linked to the amount of time
between the onset of sudden cardiac arrest and defibrillation.
• Chances of survival are reduced 7 to 10 percent with
every minute of delay. Few attempts at resuscitation are successful
after 10 minutes.
• Even the best EMS systems experience delays; early
defibrillation increases a cardiac arrest victim’s chances
of survival.
• If used within three to four minutes of cardiac arrest,
a victim’s survival rate increases to 60 percent, and
if used within one minute, the survival rate increases to
90 percent.
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