Quote:
Originally Posted by rustyp
In a community with a 6 minute response time by full time paramedics a neighborhood CPR training initiative would be much more beneficial than AED implementation. By the time a neighbor runs to retrieve the AED the paramedics are there. That time was better spent administering CPR.
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The medical world says for having a likely survival, the accepted maximum time delay before beginning CPR is 4 minutes. Beyond that, the chances go from low, to extremely rare plus having serious long term injury.
The numbers I have seen shows it is at least 6 minutes, and usually longer.
So having a community of people trained in CPR, all heading your way to fill the gap in time before the paramedics arrive, is going to make outcomes better. No question.
Having an AED also aids in monitoring the CPR process and issues voice directions to improve technique (rate and compression). It can also administer a shock if needed.
Now the paramedics arrive. I would welcome the paramedics to concentrate on doing advanced life support - administering drugs, oxygen, assessing for other treatments they can provide... instead of doing CPR themselves. Performing CPR is very tiring. Having many to share the work is the best way.
The overall goal is to increase the odds of survival, with the lowest amount of complications possible. The AED program does that.