Ever find yourself humming an ad jingle which you just can’t seem to get out of your head? Maybe you don’t even like the product … maybe you don’t even remember the product! But there it is, floating around in your memory. You have heard it so many times that it is has just found a place in your consciousness that is too comfortable to abandon. So it seems to be for music. Verbal messages on the other hand seem to be more vulnerable to overkill. Studies have shown that stories that focus on dramatic and global problems — mass starvation, nuclear holocaust, etc. — rapidly reach a saturation point and promptly decline in effectiveness, despite the valid import of their message. Well presented stories which demonstrate how such events do or would impact a given person are frequently more engaging and effective. It is very difficult to get one’s psyche around a global disaster — the scope and implications are too great, the pain too impersonal. However, a personal tale seems to resonate more in the private recesses of our personalities.In the year 2011, at the pinnacle of scientific knowledge and accomplishment, we in the medical profession find ourselves in need of help — your help. Yes, you (whoever you may be). Somewhere in the range of 350,000 people each year suffer a sudden cardiac arrest. Somewhere in the range of 95% (give or take a few percentage points depending on your community) die from this event. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men” can only accomplish so much. Once the heart ceases to provide the brain and other vital organs with oxygenated blood, it is a matter of minutes before irreversible damage and/or death itself ensues. There are only so many doctors and nurses, so many hospitals and so many emergency personnel. The most critical period is the first four minutes after arrest. That is before EMS arrives. That is long before a hospital or doctor enters the picture. That may even be before EMS is called. Who is there? You. Perhaps only you. Do you know what to do? Do you realize that whether or not that person — be he stranger or loved one – lives or dies will likely depend upon what you do and do not do? Do you realize how critical it is to call 9-1-1 when you see someone collapse who is no longer breathing or responding? Do you know how to institute PUSHCPR™ — chest compressions in the center of the front of the chest 2 inches deep with complete release between pushes 100 times per minute? Have you taken a class? (Please contact the Florida Heart Research Institute: 305-674-3020, or visit www.floridaheart.org/pushcpr/ for more information) Do you know what an AED (automatic external defibrillator) is? How to use one?
Ironically, in an age when we can probe cells and molecules and even atoms, when we have computing power that can finesse millions of information bytes simultaneously, when we are developing means to heal or replace failing organs, we in the medical profession find ourselves helpless without a meaningful partnership with you, the individuals who constitute the most vital resource to save lives.. The impact of an educated populace is dramatic. In those few communities which have raised public awareness, survival rates for patients found with a heart rhythm that can be shocked (a distinct subgroup of sudden cardiac arrest victims) have jumped from the 10% to the 50% range. Now that is impressive! (and no new medical discovery was required — merely public education about what is already known!). Therefore, until we are saving all of those lives that could otherwise be saved, we will continue to make all of the educational efforts that we can find — whether through articles such as this or catchy jingles … until the awareness of what we can do to save lives becomes subliminal and automatic. This is a common problem. One of those lives is likely to be someone you know, perhaps well — perhaps even yourself.
