Defibrillators save lives at big venues

BALTIMORE, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The odds of surviving cardiac arrest improve in a large, public venue where defibrillators are available, U.S. researchers say.

Study leader Dr. Myron "Mike" Weisfeldt of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore finds 79 percent of cardiac arrest victims have the kind of disrupted heart rhythm that can be corrected by an electrical shock from a defibrillator. Among those who were actually shocked by a bystander, 34 percent survived and recovered well enough to be discharged from the hospital.

"Our research clearly shows that the chances of surviving a shockable cardiac arrest are best when someone publicly witnesses it happening, a bystander uses cardiopulmonary resuscitation to keep blood flowing to the brain and other key organs, and an automated external defibrillator can be applied to electrically restart the heart," Weisfeldt says in a statement. "The best outcomes have all been followed by prompt arrival of trained emergency medical personnel and a trip to the hospital."

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds among those stricken at home, only 36 percent had shockable rhythm disturbances. Use of an external defibrillator helped 11.6 percent survive and leave the hospital.

Weisfeldt suspects patient demographics and heart disease severity may account for the differences.