May 30, 2008­–WASHINGTON, D.C.– Congress has set aside June 1-7 as the first annual National CPR/AED Awareness Week to spotlight how lives can be saved if more Americans know CPR and how to use an AED. In the declaration, Congress is asking states and municipalities to make AEDs more publicly accessible.

During this week, CPR-AED training organizations across the country will conduct CPR/AED classes and demonstrations, host events, and provide educational information on the importance of CPR and AED training.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) claims the lives of more than 166,000 people in this country every year. Ninety-four percent of people who suffer SCA die before reaching a hospital. If ordinary people act immediately with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an automated external defibrillator (AED), instead of just waiting for help to arrive, many thousands of lives can be saved every year.

May 28, 2008–DALLAS, May 28–Most Americans don’t believe they could perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) to help save a life in a cardiac emergency, according to a recent American Heart Association survey. View full survey results here - View fact sheet here. In an online survey of more than 1,100 adults, 89 percent said they were willing and able to do something to help if they witnessed a medical emergency. Yet only 21 percent were confident they could perform CPR, and only 15 percent believed they could use an AED in an emergency. More than half of those surveyed didn’t recognize an AED in a typical setting.

May 19, 2008­–Baltimore, MD–Volunteer heart experts at Johns Hopkins have embarked on what is believed to be the largest single-day event to date to screen young athletes in the United States for early signs of life- threatening defects in the body’s blood-pumping organ.

The medics are scheduled to test the hearts of more than 1,000 athletes, males and females age 16 to 18, attending the 2008 track and field championship games of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. The event is taking place in Baltimore at Morgan State University, at what the Johns Hopkins team has dubbed the first-ever Heart Hype program.

May 19, 2008 ­– Portland OR –

Study will be conducted by paramedics at the scene of a person's collapse

First Year Data from the SCA Survivor Registry,™ An Initiative of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

May 15, 2008 – PITTSBURGH – One year ago, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation launched the SCA Survivor Registry™, the nation’s first online registry for people who suffered sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)—and lived to tell about it. Information submitted by 171 registrants offers a glimpse into the small community of rare individuals who beat the odds and survived this national killer.

A review of information about survivors in the registry, released at Heart Rhythm 2008 in San Francisco, shows:

May 13, 2008 – HUMESTON, IA ­– Students, staff, and visitors at any school building in Wayne County, Iowa, are now a little more protected from the number-one killer of Americans--sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)---and soon all the citizens of Wayne County in rural south central Iowa will be a little safer.

After Butch Gibbs of Humeston suffered SCA in his home on April 2, 2004, and was saved by his wife, Susie’s immediate start of CPR and the quick arrival of the Humeston First Responders with their automated external defibrillator (AED), the couple began promoting the use of CPR and AEDs. 

“There has to be a reason I survived,” said Butch Gibbs, “and I believe that reason is to spread awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and the importance of knowing how to do CPR and how to use an AED so that others may have the same chance I did.”