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The 30-day survival rate is then much higher, even if the emergency doctor arrives quickly. A Danish study has now clearly demonstrated this effect with data from more than 7000 people affected.
Survival rate increases significantly
“14.7 percent (1,098 of 7,471 patients) were defibrillated by lay rescuers before the ambulance arrived. Overall, 44.5 percent (489 of 1,098) of these patients survived the first 30 days after the event compared to 18, 8 percent (1200 out of 6373) who did not receive immediate defibrillation,” wrote the scientists around Mathias Hindborg from Nordsjaellands Hospital in the summary of their work for the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam.
Apart from a period of zero to two minutes before first aid was rendered – in these cases the ambulance must have practically just driven past the scene of the incident or already been in the immediate vicinity for another reason – there was always a statistically significant difference in favor of immediate defibrillation -Used by laypeople, passers-by, companions, etc. With rapid defibrillation, the chance of survival was already 37 percent higher, even if the ambulance arrived within two to four minutes after the event.
Source: Nachrichten
