Research Paper on SCA

• by 06kj
• 2013-04-11 08:04:46
• General Posting
• 851 views
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Hey guys,
I'm currently taking a class on human disease (which has been a major pain) and I'm required to write a research paper on a public health issue. I'm an environmental science and policy major studying to become a professional geologist... I actually took this class for fun to learn more about the heart. Turned out that I had to miss the one lecture we had on cardiac arrest for a more important school activity. As this class has nothing to do with my major I can't say I'm putting as much effort into writing paper as I would for a geology class. But I have done extensive research on my topic of "Preventing Cardiac Death by use of Automated External Defibrillators." I've also been browsing the internet for videos on advanced life support resuscitation of cardiac arrest patients.

Anyways, all of us who have experienced SCA and lived sure are lucky. These numbers are scary. Out of hospital SCA survival rates in large cities are abysmal because of time it takes EMS to arrive.

Using the research I found I calculated my chance of survival.
Overall rate is ~3%
The difference in studied survivors vs nonsurvivors has much to do with EMS response time with average survivors at 4.8minutes +/-1.2mins and nonsurvivors at 6.2mins +/-2.3mins
My response time was about 7 minutes. This gave me less than a 15% survival chance, much less without brain damage.
Luckily I was in a room with an ICU nurse who performed proper CPR on me increasing my survival chance by over 20%.
This research to prove that AEDs are the most effective form of reducing death has basically proven that in my case (although I would not be alive without the AED) the early CPR by my guardian angel had the largest effect on my survival.

If anyone wants to read my paper when I'm done I'll send you it. It's not a very good paper as I'm going into far less detail than I have researched, but you're welcome to read it.