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by brandonb·11y ago·view on hn ↗
Very cool! I think this could help with sudden cardiac arrest, where the heart stops pumping blood effectively and death happens within minutes--faster than an ambulance can arrive. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/heart/disorders/arrhy...

The survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest is 8%, and it kills about 350,000-400,000 people in just the US. It's our #1 killer.

The difference between a life saved and a life lost is whether non-medical bystanders can intervene and perform CPR or use an AED within the first couple of minutes.

1 comments
SCD (sudden cardiac arrest) is a great example of when having a highly trained healthcare professional at the scene early can save lives. It's been well shown that there's a 'bystander effect' when it comes to CPR, which can keep the brain oxygenated in SCD and keep people alive before the ambulance arrives. The bystander effect, is that CPR is often not done when it needs to be (even by those who have been trained in CPR) because they are fearful of doing something wrong. With a doc there immediately, we can encourage bystanders to do CPR immediately and again save lives not otherwise being saved.
"With a doc there immediately, we can encourage bystanders to do CPR immediately and again save lives not otherwise being saved."

That definitely helps. But is not unique to Call9. Call 911 and you'll get dispatcher-assisted CPR. Counting compressions with you, talking you through the process.

That is true. But there's a difference in being able to see the patient vs. having a bystander explain the situation verbally. There's no question that a dispatcher brings value to the CPR process - I think that we can bring more.
SCD is sudden cardiac death, not arrest - death as the result of 'loss of heart function'.
FWIW, I work in a cardiology department and "Sudden Cardiac Death" and "Sudden Cardiac Arrest" are used interchangeably. You even hear the term "sudden cardiac death survivor": http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/25/8/623
Sorry - let me explain myself. The term SCD is often used as analogous to SCA (sudden cardiac arrest). In this context, SCA is a more proper term - good catch. The only difference between the two is that the SCA didn't get treated in time and so the patient expired.
I figured something along those lines, with "SCD (sudden cardiac arrest)" in your original comment. Always happy to clarify and get clarification!