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.
Learning CPR can help save lives. If you see an unresponsive adult who is not breathing or not breathing normally, call 911 and push are and fast on the center of the chest!
Watch this video from the American Heart Association to prepare yourself to act in an emergency: http://youtu.be/r8iU3Mtblho
The Brits are a bit more cheeky than us–check out their demo video here for a good laugh: http://youtu.be/ILxjxfB4zNk