- If an AED is used between 0-3 minutes after asystole, or cessation of cardiac electrical activity, the survival rate is 75%
- Between 3-5 minutes survival rate drops to 50%
- Between 5-10 minutes the survival rate is as low as 2-10%
Almost make you want to carry an AED in you back pocket when your not surrounded by crash carts in the hospital?
The new CPR regulations of ABC to CAB have been some what controversial. The "B" (Breathing) portion was thrown into the back seat, with "C" (Compressions) in the front seat driving at 100 compressions per minute. For some, this makes sense, to others it doesn't. The fact of the matter is, the guidelines will change again and again and again, but the current method is proven to be most effective.
History:
At an earlier time, when anatomy and physiology knowledge was less proverbial, people noticed that the body became cold, and in an attempt to "resuscitate" the victim they would lay hot ash, wood, or coal over the body try to regain the temperature of the body. Another technique involved wiping or beating the body to stimulate the body back to life. For over three hundred centuries the use of fire bellows were used,
which is kind of a smart or more logical idea. Some less logical ideas were blowing tobacco into the rectum of the victim. Mouth-to-mouth was introduced and also used for centuries and still widely used in the current guidelines. In the late 50's and beginning of the 60's the US army implemented a modern use of CPR. It was difficult to track down but I found a free text release of the technique used by the military, printed by the official medical journal of Jama on July 9th, 1960 entitled Closed-Chest Cardiac Message (if anything, read the method portion of the article) by Dr. W.B. Kouwenhoven, Dr. Ing., James B. Rude, and G Guy Knickerbocker. The primary research and development was put out by Dr. Kouwenhoven. In 1972 the first general public training began at a conference center, in Seattle Washington the training was called "Medic 2." CPR became more popular after the inception of the American Heart Association (AHA) in 1973.
In movies or theatrics the survival rate is about 75%, in reality CPR survival rate administered out side of a hospital setting is 6%.