Three Critical Minutes

by John Kralik, M.D. F.A.C.S.

New guidelines for recognizing sudden cardiac arrest make rapid diagnosis possible - 15 seconds.

Is the victim unresponsive? Is the victim breathing, moving, or coughing? If there are no signs of life, the situation is critical. Treatment must be performed as soon as possible.

The Automated External Defibrillator simplifies and improves the outcome. National survival rates show that up to 70 percent of victims may survive when defibrillators are accessible and are used within the first three minutes following the sudden arrest. Without early defibrillation only 5 percent survive. Every second counts.

Learn more about C.P.R. and A.E.D. Become a credentialed lay responder. Give someone a second chance for life. More than two hundred and fifty thousand Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest each year.

The American Heart Association provides training and will credential you as a certified lay responder. Survival and recovery are not a matter of chance. It is what you do in the first three minutes that counts.

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