CPR can increase survival rate

TORONTO, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the part of bystanders can quadruple cardiac arrest survival rates to more than 50 percent, a Canadian study found.

Dr. Laurie Morrison and the research team at Rescu -- a group based out of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto dedicated to out-of-hospital resuscitation -- found 30 percent of bystanders in Toronto are willing to deliver CPR. That is one of the lowest rates of bystanders helping others in the developed world.

"Over the last four years, we have been working hard with paramedics and firefighters in Southern Ontario to increase the survival rate of people who experience cardiac arrest outside of the hospital," Morrison said in a statement. "Since 2004, our efforts have managed to triple the survival rate in the Toronto area but it is still less than 10 percent."

Morrison pointed out that home is one of the most common places for cardiac arrests so learning CPR could mean saving a family member's life.

"Even if you perform hands-only CPR, and focus on compressing the chest, you can give a victim of cardiac arrest as much as a 1 in 2 chance of surviving," Dr. Marco Di Buono, director of research at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, said. "Doing nothing virtually guarantees the victim will not survive at all."