The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation applauds the European Patient Safety Foundation, the European Resuscitation Council, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists, and the World Health Organization for urging schools worldwide to teach students CPR. The statement follows:
In Europe and the USA, 700,000 people die after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and unsuccessful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) every year, about 2,000 deaths per day. These estimates apply to many other parts of the world. This cause of death is probably the third most common cause of death in developed countries, after all cancers combined and other cardiovascular causes. When professional emergency medical services arrive after cardiac arrest—which can be after 8–12 min or more—the brain has already started to die. Thus, a time window for lay resuscitation exists. In 60–80% of cases, a lay bystander witnesses the cardiac arrest, and 60–70% of cases occur at home. Lay resuscitation can fill the gap between cardiac arrest and arrival of emergency medical services in most cases. In fact, initiation of resuscitation by a lay bystander is associated with a two to four times increase in neurologically intact survival. Perhaps more than 100,000 deaths per year could be prevented if members of the public, beginning with school children, were educated about how to do CPR. In countries where educating school children in CPR is mandatory, lay resuscitation is done in 60–75% of cases, and survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest can be tripled.
Inspired by, and on the basis of this information, the European Patient Safety Foundation, the European Resuscitation Council, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, and the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists developed their joint “Kids Save Lives” statement for training of school children worldwide in CPR. We asked WHO to lend support to this statement. On Jan 13, 2015, we received a letter from WHO stating that “…approval has been granted for the WHO to endorse the statement on Kids Save Lives”. We recommend in this statement that school children be educated in CPR from the age of 12 years or younger for 2 hours per year. This endorsement will help to save thousands of lives worldwide, thanks to many individuals, colleagues, organisations, initiatives, and the WHO.
SOURCE: The Lancet
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