• Sudden cardiac arrest is caused by a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm that can result from heart attack, respirator arrest, electrocution, drowning, choking or trauma, or it can have no known cause.

• Louisiana's heart disease death rate is nearly 18 percent higher than the national average.

• Cardiovascular disease is not limited to the elderly. As of 2006, more than 151,000 Americans who died from the disease were younger than 65-years-old.

• CPR helps maintain vital blood flow to the heart and brain and increases the amount of time that an electric shock from a defibrillator can be effective.

• Brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no CPR and defibrillation occurs during that time.

• Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time. Many victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors.

• Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can double a victim's chance 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.

• Less than one-third of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR.

• If bystander CPR is not provided, a sudden cardiac arrest victim's chances of survival fall 7 percent to 10 percent for every minute of delay until defibrillation. Few attempts at resuscitation are successful if CPR and defibrillation are not administered within 10 minutes.

• Only about 6 percent of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims survive.

• About 75 percent to 80 percent of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home, so being trained to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can mean the difference between life and death of a loved one.

• Additionally, studies have shown that children as young as 9-years-old can learn and retain CPR skills. (Statistics from American Heart Association, 2006)

(CPR statistics from American Heart Association, 2008)