CPR Statistics
Each year in the United States more than 300,000 people die from an out of hospital cardiac arrest (where the heart stops beating). Unfortunately, cardiac arrest kills more than 90% of victims before they reach hospital. (1)
Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation is key to improving survival rates from a cardiac arrest. Without bystander CPR (before an ambulance arrives), the survival rate is as low as 2%. With early CPR, this survival rate rises to 5 - 10% (2).
Combined with early defibrillation, the survival rate can rise to as much as 30%.
Brain damage occurs 4 minutes after a cardiac arrest with no bystander CPR. (3)
What is CPR?
Visit our friends over at What is CPR? to learn the science behind resuscitation.
References
1 - http://www.frca.co.uk/article.aspx?articleid=100884
