The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation is dedicated to bringing you the latest news and developments in sudden cardiac arrest prevention and treatment.
Torrey Pines Bank Adds Defibrillators
SAN DIEGO--Torrey Pines Bank is the first bank in San Diego County to participate in the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Program through San Diego Project Heart Beat. As part of the program the bank has installed automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at all of its 11 branches throughout California and its corporate offices and all staff will… Read More
Woman Dies at Her Own Funeral
Should funeral homes have automated external defibrillators? KAZAN, Russia--A woman died from a heart attack caused by shock after waking up to discover she had been declared dead--and was being prepared for burial. As mourning relatives filed past her open coffin the supposedly dead woman suddenly woke up and started screaming as she realized… Read More
200,000 Patients Treated for Cardiac Arrest in U.S. Hospitals Annually
PHILADELPHIA--More than 200,000 people are treated for cardiac arrest in United States hospitals each year, a rate that may be on the rise. The findings are reported online this week in Critical Care Medicine in a University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine-led study. Though cardiac arrest is known to be a chief contributor to in-… Read More
ALTITUDE Study Shows ICD Therapy Saves Lives Without Increasing Mortality from Defibrillator Shock
SAN FRANCISCO – Inappropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks for atrial fibrillation/flutter lead to increased risk of death during the next several years, while inappropriate shocks for sinus tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia, artifact, noise, or device oversensing are associated with the same survival as in patients… Read More
A Very Happy Father's Day: Son Saves Father with AED at Home
WEST PARIS, Maine — Wayne Millen worried for years that he'd die of a sudden heart attack. Genetically, his odds weren't good. His father died of a heart attack at age 66. His mother underwent heart bypass surgery when she was 66. His younger brother, after surviving two heart attacks in two years, died at age 53 of sudden cardiac arrest. "My… Read More
When It Comes to Saving Lives, Seconds Count!
Survival rates increase when AED is used less than 10 seconds after CPR pause TORONTO, Ont.--A new study has found the number of people who survive after suffering a cardiac arrest outside a hospital drops significantly if the pause between stopping CPR and using a defibrillator to administer an electric shock is longer than 20 seconds. The number… Read More
Sudden Cardiac Death Subject of Sweeping Study in San Francisco
A new study by the University of California, San Francisco's Cardiac Electrophysiology Service seeks to discover for the first time the true causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD), why it is more prevalent in some demographic populations, and whether it is too often inaccurately cited as a cause of death. Working with the Office of the Chief Medical… Read More
Utica MI Police Officers Save Oakland University Police Officer
Two Utica, Michigan, police officers are credited with saving the life of an Oakland University police officer who went into a cardiac arrest last month during a firearms training session at a Shelby Township gun range. OUDP Chief Samuel C. Lucido sent a letter to the Utica Police Department thanking the quick-thinking officers and the OUPD for… Read More
Study Shows Little Benefit of CRT in Some Patients
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is of little value to 40% of patients who are candidates for the therapy under current guidelines, according to a study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Ilke Sipahi, MD, and colleagues from University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University conducted a… Read More