According to HealthDay, more American children who suffer cardiac arrest at home or in public places are getting CPR from bystanders.
The researchers behind the new study looked at data from nearly 2,200 youngsters (infants to age 18) who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 29 large cities between January 2013 and December 2014.
About half (49 percent) of the children received bystander CPR, which is higher than in previous studies. Those who received bystander CPR had an 11 percent chance of surviving with little or no brain damage. Youngsters who didn’t receive bystander CPR had only a 7 percent chance of survival with little or no brain damage, the study found.
Eighty-six percent of the cardiac arrests occurred at home. And, most bystander CPR was performed by a family member. Bystander CPR was more common for white children (60 percent) than for Hispanic children (44 percent) or black children (42 percent), the study revealed.
Most cases of cardiac arrest occurred in infants — 62 percent. But, bystander CPR had no effect on survival in those cases, the study showed.
