Resuscitate!

Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone at any time. But in many cities, people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest are up to 46 times more likely to die than those who experience cardiac arrest in Seattle and King County, Washington, or Rochester, Minnesota--an astonishing and completely preventable variance in survival rates.

InResuscitate!, Mickey S. Eisenberg, an expert in emergency medical services (EMS), identifies fifty factors associated with the likelihood of surviving cardiac arrest and lays out twenty-five specific steps involved in raising a community's cardiac arrest survival rate. He offers recommendations for immediate and long-term improvement of EMS services, with actions that can be taken at local and national levels that will ultimately benefit anyone who needs emergency care, for any reason.

This book will be valuable for EMS medical directors, administrators and supervisors, and personnel - paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers - as well as elected officials, health services administrators, and concerned citizens. In short, this book is for everyone who wants to learn what we can all do to help more people survive sudden cardiac arrest.

For more than thirty years,Mickey S. Eisenberg, M.D., Ph.D., has played a leading role in developing King County, Washington's emergency response to cases of sudden cardiac arrest, a system recognized as among the very best in the nation. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Medical Director of King County Emergency Medical Services.

Foreword by Roger D. White, M.D.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Guide to Terminology

1. How We Die Suddenly

2. A History of Resuscitation

3. Causes of Sudden Cardiac Death

4. A Profile of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

5. Who Will Live and Who Will Die?

6. Location, Location, Location: Best Places to have a Cardiac Arrest

7. What Can Your Community Do?

8. A Completed Life

9. The Paradox of Technology

10. A Plan of Action

Appendix 1. Incidence and Prevalence of Coronary Artery Disease and Cardiac Arrest

Appendix 2. Web Site: www.survivecardiacarrest.org

Appendix 3. Web Site: www.learncpr.org

Appendix 4. Web Site: www.learnaed.org

Appendix 5. The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium

Notes

Index