Dr. Naresh Purohit: CPR training needed to save lives from sudden cardiac death

Hamirpur (HP): With the significant rise in the number of sudden cardiac deaths in the hill state there is an urgent need for widespread cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training that would save lives, said Dr Naresh Purohit, the Executive Member, the Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences.

Voicing his concern on this issue, Principal Investigator for the Association of studies for cardiac care Dr Purohit told UNl here that according to the recent Himachal Pradesh heart attack registry data, Hamirpur had the highest incidence of heart attacks. Heart attacks are equally common in rural and urban populations.
It is about two-fold more common in men than women.

He said that the data revealed that there was an average delay of about 13 hours from symptom onset to reporting in the hospitals. Only about 30 per cent received thrombolytic life-saving medicine while the rest of the 70 per cent could not receive this medicine due to late reporting. About 8 per cent of patients died of heart attack.

Noted Epidemiologist Dr Purohit averred that sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the sudden loss of all heart activity due to an irregular heart rhythm. Breathing stops. The person becomes unconscious. Without immediate treatment, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to death.

“Emergency treatment for sudden cardiac arrest includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and shocks to the heart with a device called an automated external defibrillator (AED). Survival is possible with fast, appropriate medical care,” he added.

He explained that sudden cardiac arrest isn’t the same as a heart attack. A heart attack happens when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked. Sudden cardiac arrest is not due to a blockage. However, a heart attack can cause a change in the heart’s electrical activity that leads to sudden cardiac arrest.

“Everyone should be trained for CPR regardless of whether or not they work in the medical field,” the renowned medico said.

“CPR should even be taught as a part of the school curriculum so that more and more people get acquainted with this life-saving skill,” he said.

He averred that CPR is an emergency life-saving technique which involves chest compressions at a rate of 100 to 120 a minute.

“Though CPR is one of the most important life-saving techniques, unfortunately, most people in the hill state do not know how to perform CPR,” he said.

“So when people experience cardiac arrest in public, in their homes or workplaces, there is simply no one around who knows how to help them.”

The acclaimed physician said most of the cardiac arrests in hill state occur outside the hospitals.
“And they don’t survive because they don’t receive CPR from bystanders,” he said.
He pointed out that the chances of survival in people who go into cardiac arrest increase if more people know how to administer CPR.

“In communities where widespread CPR training has been provided, survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest have been reported as high as 49 per cent to 74 per cent,” he said.

“CPR is much more likely to be successful when started promptly and the victim of cardiac arrest will almost certainly die if the bystanders do not intervene immediately,” he added. (UNI)