What is Sudden Cardiac Arrest(SCA)?

SCA – or Sudden Cardiac Arrest – is a situation that the heart is no longer able to pump the blood around the body.

A statistic states that around 1500 people die from Sudden Cardiac Arrest every day which is over half a million people yearly. As today only 10 to 20% of the victims of a cardiac arrest survive the ordeal. In 2020 up to 40% of all deaths will be related to heart diseases.

With an AED nearby, you can increase the survival rate and decrease the risk of dying. Therefore, the chances of survival after a Cardiac Arrest increase by up to 70%.

What is a Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

Like mentioned earlier, Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is a situation that the heart is no longer able to pump the blood around the body. It is usually caused by a chaotic fast heart rhythm, which is called Ventricular Fibrillation (VF). Therefore, giving electroshock is the only way to bring the heart back into its normal rhythm.

Most importantly, urgent assistance is very crucial within the first minutes after the SCA. Within 6 minutes after the SCA, severe brain damage can occur and after 10 minutes the chance of survival is only 10%. The response time of an ambulance is 10 to 15 minutes average (without counting traffic jams and other unaccounted scenarios).

Why an AED is needed?

An AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is a portable device that analyses the victim’s heart rhythm and based on a very complex algorithm.

It will first diagnose the need for electroshock. During the resuscitation process, It gonna assist the caretaker with verbal and visual instructions. In short, it provides both assistance during CPR.

Additionally, it will also assist the caretaker with a metronome sound signal during CPR to keep the correct rhythm. Some AED is even available with a user-friendly on-screen operation guide. However, AED required the caretaker to push the shock button in case require electroshock.