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The CPR GAP

By Justin Haagen on Feb 12, 2019

Cardiac arrest situations, are quite possibly the scariest and most serious of medical emergencies, especially when they occur outside of hospital. The most effective treatment of a cardiac arrests is through delivery of the chain of survival including emergency resuscitation. Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (more commonly known as CPR), is a method employed to manually maintain the circulation of oxygenated blood to the body’s vital organs, with the goal of staving off major organ damage during the event of an out of hospital cardiac arrest.

 The most important link in the chain of survival is the Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s). They are used by attaching sticky defibrillation pads to the chest of the person suffering from the cardiac arrest, the machine then analyses the person’s heart rhythm, if the heart is ‘quivering’ irregularly, the device emits an electric shock to stop the heart momentarily in the hope that it will ‘reboot’ into the correct rhythm afterwards. For every minute, the person goes without defibrillation, their survival chances decrease by 10%

 A new study suggests that women are more likely to pass away from a cardiac arrest as bystanders are more reluctant to perform CPR on them.

Researchers suggest that this is due to a reluctance to touch a woman’s chest. Strangers may fear touching unknown women more than they would touching an unknown man, with possible rescuers concerned about touching a woman’s breasts or removing her clothes.

Defibrillation requires all clothing on the torso to be removed, even bras, also have to be removed because most have underwires in them.

The study, which was funded by the Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, involved nearly 20,000 cases around the USA, it is also the first study conducted which examines gender differences in receiving emergency medicine from the public versus professional responders.

 Results showed that a mere 39% of women suffering cardiac arrest in a public place was given CPR versus 45% of men, men were also found to be 23% more likely to survive.

Obviously, these results are shocking? But why won’t bystanders put aside embarrassment and fear to save a life?  This needs to change!

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