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A memo for you, who could be a sufferer or a saver

Mindray 2019-09-10

A first-year Tsinghua University student collapsed in his dormitory while he was tidying his room on May 7, 2019. The young man was sweating heavily, with his hands clenched tight. His roommate immediately called the emergency service and asked other students and teachers for help.

After checking his condition, students who came to help instantly realized it was sudden cardiac arrest and began CPR.

When the emergency service (EMS) arrived, students were using a Mindray AED to defibrillate the victim. Within 10 minutes, the student was successfully defibrillated after two shocks (first shock 200J, second shock 300J). His heart rhythm was restored. He was then transferred to Peking University Third Hospital for further treatment, and has now been discharged from hospital.

The EMS doctor explained that the student would have had little chance to survive if the AED had not been used before the EMS arrived. The correct and quick action taken by the first witnesses had given the student the best chance to survive.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a sudden and unexpected loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness. When it happens, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs, and the person will die if appropriate resuscitation is not given within minutes.

And what makes it worse is that this typically happens without any warning signs. Globally, sudden and unexpected cardiac death is a very common cause of death.

Ultimately, SCA can happen to people of all ages and in all places. This means that if there are proper procedures and treatment available, many lives can be saved. On the other hand, this also means that many lives are at risk if people are unprepared.

● Campus: Despite older people being more likely to be struck by SCA, children and teenagers are not free from the risk. According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, more than 7,000 youth under the age of 18 experience SCA each year in the U.S., with survival rates less than 10%. The annual incidence of SCA for U.S. high school students is 0.63 per 100,000 while for student athletes, the rate is 1.14 per 100,000. [4]

Workplace: Workplaces are where adults typically spend two thirds of their everyday lives. At work, SCA strikes around 10,000 people, accounting for 15% of workplace fatalities, as indicated by a report from the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration. The incidence rate is higher in high-risk emergency jobs such as firefighters and police.

Sports places: Although regular exercise is a good way to strengthen heart functions and prevent cardiovascular problems in the long term, improper physical exertion does increase immediate risk of SCA. It is especially dangerous for those who have already had a pre-existing or undiagnosed heart condition but do not know about it.

In most cases, the underlying mechanism of SCA is ventricular fibrillation (VF), in other words, abnormal heart rhythm. An AED, or Automated External Defibrillator, can automatically analyze and detect cardiac arrhythmias of SCA patients, and advise the rescuer of the need to deliver a shock for defibrillation.

The number is astonishing - 90% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims die. But if prompt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation is provided in the first minute, the chance of survival rises up to 90%. After that, every minute delay leads to about 10% drop of in survival chances.

However, an unfortunate fact is that it usually takes ambulances 7-12 minutes on average to arrive on a scene. This means that for sudden cardiac arrest survival, there is no time to lose.

This is why having an on-site AED in public areas is so important, especially for schools, workplaces, and stations. Public access to AED should be actively implemented in public places that have a high density of population.

Yes. They are both very important. AED is used to restart a heart. CPR helps restore the circulation of blood, and pumps blood back to the patients' heart, brain and other vital organs, which can delay the failure of heart muscles.

CPR also makes the heart more likely to respond to the shock, giving a higher chance of successful defibrillation.

Saving a life can be really a tense and anxious experience. It is highly recommended that every user has been trained in CPR and the use of the AED. Importantly, a reliable and easy-to-use AED can be a vital life-saving partner to ease a first-time rescuer's stress and give him or her the confidence to take action.

The BeneHeart C Series, a new member of Mindray's AED family, is developed to meet the need of the market. Having identified the challenges and needs of rescuers, the new AED range features a series of technologies, such as ResQNaviTM and QShockTM, to smartly guide rescuers through the tense process with easy-to-understand animation coaching and voice prompts, to help perform effective SCA resuscitation with confidence.



[1] Heart Diseaseand Stroke Statistics - 2018 Update, American Heart Association.

[2] ERC Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015, European Resuscitation Council.

[3] Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China 2014, China National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases

[4] Toresdahl, B. G.,Rao, A. L., Harmon, K. G., & Drezner, J. A. (2014). Incidence of sudden cardiac arrest in high school student athletes on school campus. Heart Rhythm, 11(7), 1190-1194.