Survival from cardiac arrest doubles when a bystander steps in to apply an automated external defibrillator (AED) before emergency responders arrived, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Circulation. The findings have significant research for workplace safety, according to public health experts, who point out that more than 100,000 of the 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occur in the U.S. each year happen outside the home.
Less than half (45.7 percent) of cardiac arrest victims get the immediate help they need before emergency responders arrive, in part because emergency medical services take, on average, between four and ten minutes to reach someone in cardiac arrest.