SCA, often mistakenly perceived as a massive heart attack, strikes without warning and kills at least 250,000 Americans outside of hospitals each year -- more than the number of people who die annually from colorectal cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, AIDS, car accidents, house fires, and gun shots combined. Ten percent of SCA victims are under age 40.
Nationwide, the SCA survival rate is only 6-7 percent and has remained stubbornly low for decades. However, in pockets of the U.S. where concerted efforts have been made to train community and lay responders in CPR and the use of defibrillators; where defibrillators are ubiquitous in public places; and where new technologies have been successfully deployed, survival rates have reached as high as 43 percent in municipalities and 90 percent in some cardiac rehabilitation centers.
"Sudden Cardiac Arrest is a treatable condition. It need not be fatal. By determining and disseminating information on successful strategies, we hope to double the national survival rate within the next 10 years. Today, the new SCA Foundation embarks on a comprehensive educational outreach program directed at health and safety professionals, the at-risk community, and the general public," says SCA Foundation President Mary Newman.
Most SCA victims lived in highly-congested cities or extremely isolated rural areas where emergency medical personnel skilled in CPR and equipped with lifesaving technology often cannot get to victims in time to save them. Emergency response time varies greatly around the country with the most at risk population generally located in large cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
SCA Survival Rates*
National average 6-7 percent
Chicago: 4 percent
New York: 5 percent
Seattle, Wash.: 30 percent
Rochester, Minn.: 43 percent
*treatable SCA cases
SCA occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating due to underlying cardiac disease, trauma, or other cause, and is unable to pump oxygen-rich blood to the brain. When SCA strikes, appropriate medical care must be administered within minutes. Survivability decreases by approximately 7 to 10 percent with each passing minute, according to the American Heart Association. It drops to zero after 10 minutes.
