CPR

CPR & Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA)

Anyone can learn CPR - and everyone should! Sadly, 70 % of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.

Why You Need to Learn CPR

Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they can happen to anyone at any time.
  • Nearly 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home.
  • Many victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors.
  • Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack.
    • Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when electrical impulses in the heart become rapid or chaotic, which causes the heart to suddenly stop beating.
    • A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked. A heart attack may cause cardiac arrest.

Who You Can Save With CPR

The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be a loved one.
  • 4 out of 5 cardiac arrests happen at home.
  • Statistically speaking, if called on to administer CPR in an emergency, the life you save is likely to be someone at home: a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend.
  • African-Americans are almost twice as likely to experience cardiac arrest at home, work or in another public location than Caucasians, and their survival rates are twice as poor as for Caucasians.

Why You Need to Take Action

  • Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths.
  • Effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, but only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.
  • Sadly, less than 8 percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive.
  • The American Heart Association trains more than 12 million people in CPR annually, to equip Americans with the skills they need to perform bystander CPR.
Info retrieved from American Heart Association updated June, 2011


Upcoming Classes

Email the CPR Instructor Coordinator for upcoming classes.