SCA News

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation has been approved for the second year in a row as an official charity at the 2011 Pittsburgh Marathon, which will be conducted on Sunday, May 15th. 

We are seeking runners and walkers to join our team in either the half-marathon, the full marathon or as a member of a five-person relay team. Participants will be asked to raise $300 per person for the half-marathon, $500 per person for the full marathon, and $150 per person ($750 per team) for relay teams.

Researchers were able to identify high-risk residential areas suitable for the placement of an automated external defibrillator by using simple demographic characteristics of a city center, according to a new study published in Circulation.

THOMASTON, Conn. – The town has been designated a HEARTSafe Community by the state health department and the American Heart Association. The town has defibrillators throughout and residents have been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"It means we are now going to have town folks start doing care immediately before EMS arriving," said Skip Gelati, a member of the volunteer ambulance corps. "It will be win for everyone." Gelati explained that when someone has a cardiac arrest there is a 6-minute window in which the chances of them being revived is quite high.

LANCASTER, Pa. — The plodding horse and buggy clomping down your street might be concealing some surprisingly advanced technology.

Amish in Paradise Township, who generally shun technology, are learning how to save lives with automated external defibrillators, or AEDs.

 Scottsdale Healthcare is only Arizona hospital, 1 of 35 worldwide in clinical study

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Scottsdale Healthcare is the only Arizona hospital system testing a new under-the-skin device that uses an electrical shock to interrupt possibly fatal heart rhythms, restoring a normal heartbeat for patients at high risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

New York, NY - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano today announced that City Paramedics have begun treating cardiac arrest patients with hypothermia therapy – a new, life-saving medical procedure that has been proven to slow the deleterious impact of cardiac arrest on the human body. The treatment involves providing cold intravenous liquids to patients in an effort to halt muscle and tissue damage as well as preserve neurological function for patients who survive a cardiac arrest. Hypothermia treatment has already helped save hundreds of lives during the past 18 months in New York City hospitals, where it’s been administered to patients during Phase I of Project Hypothermia, a joint initiative between the City’s Emergency Medical Service and the Greater New York Hospital Association.

Comedian Hal Sparks was hailed a hero last night after saving the life of a fellow air passenger when the man collapsed at Los Angeles International Airport.

The comedian launched into action when he saw an elderly male fall to the ground in the Delta Airlines terminal at around 11pm (local time).

He performed CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on the man and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while a woman helped to give chest compressions until paramedics arrived on the scene and transported the victim to hospital.

Sparks took to his Twitter.com blog moments after the incident to tell fans all about his life-saving actions.

He wrote, "Just did CPR for the 3rd time in my life. What a night... When they took him away he was breathing on his own... Hope he makes it."

And the star has urged all of his followers to take first aid lessons because it's a useful skill to have.

Studies support bystanders not using mouth-to-mouth breathing

If you haven't been well-trained in CPR and you see someone experiencing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), just doing chest compressions to help keep the blood flowing can be as effective as CPR that includes mouth-to-mouth breathing, new research claims.

Two new studies, appearing in the July 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that when bystanders were instructed by emergency dispatchers to give either standard CPR, which includes mouth-to-mouth breathing, or chest-compression-only CPR, survival rates were similar between the two techniques.

Experts hope that by simplifying the procedure and removing the mouth-to-mouth contact that more bystanders might be willing to attempt CPR.