HEALTH & MEDICAL

Neighborhood Demographics and Cardiac Arrest Treatments and Outcomes

In a cardiac arrest, the heart suddenly stops beating. About 350,000 patients have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital each year in the United States. Only 8% to 10% survive and that number varies regionally. But does the racial make-up of a neighborhood influence the likelihood that a bystander will deliver CPR or use an electrical shock device known as a defibrillator to rescue the person, and does it influence survival from cardiac arrest?