Sudden Cardiac Arrest can strike anytime, anywhere, anyone. Every year 40,000 Canadians die of cardiac arrest. Without proper intervention, the chance of survival decreases 10% for every one minute.

St. JohnAED specifically addresses the middle links, in the Cardiac Chain of Survival. Early CPR and Early Defibrillation, in a comprehensive fashion.

A groundbreaking study released in the New England Journal of Medicine in August of 2004 concluded the following: AED usage doubles the likelihood of surviving a cardiac arrest.

Advanced Cardiac Life Support in Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest, August 12, 2004. The New England Journal of Medicine

• Better survival has been associated with the first three links in the “chain of survival”: early access to emergency medical care, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation. 
  
  
• This multi-centre, controlled clinical trial took place in 17 cities involving 5,638 patients who had had cardiac arrests outside the hospital. The study occurred across a broad geographic area and the results can be generalized to most “communities with populations less than 1 million”. 
  
  
•  Cardiac arrest witnessed by a bystander, CPR by a bystander, and use of a defibrillator in eight minutes or less were each strongly associated with improved survival. 
  
  
•  Overall conclusion to the study: “In order to save lives, and do so efficiently, public health planners should make CPR by bystanders and a rapid defibrillation response, major priorities for the allocation of resources”. 
  
  
•  The study was positioned to answer the question: will the rate of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest increase if laypersons are trained to attempt defibrillation with the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) 
  
  
•  Overall conclusion: “Training and equipping volunteers to attempt early defibrillation within a structural response system can increase the number of survivors to hospital discharge after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in public locations. Trained laypersons can use AEDs safely and effectively.”

For more information on St. JohnAED contact Melissa Nickason at (705) 726-0991 x 226.