Q J Med 2000; 93: 191-195
© 2000 Association of Physicians
Cheating sudden death: how to do it, and what life's like after it
N.R. GRUBB and
P. BLOOMFIELD
From the Department of Cardiology, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Introduction
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Before the development of portable external defibrillators and
the adoption of this technology by the emergency medical services,
survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was a very rare
occurrence. Although CPR could be administered by ambulance
crews, the delays involved in moving the victim to hospital
prior to defibrillation were too great to allow many to survive.
The first major advance in prehospital care occurred when Frank
Pantridge addressed possible ways of reducing the high mortality
rate associated with myocardial infarction. He recognized that
most individuals who died did so within an hour of the onset
of symptoms. Despite opposition from colleagues and the authorities,
he and his resident, John Geddes, implemented the world's first
mobile coronary care unit (MCCU) in Belfast in 1966. During
the first 15 months of operation, the MCCU attended 10 patients
who had ventricular fibrillation outside hospital, and all were
successfully defibrillated.
1 Soon after, MCCUs were
. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Reducing mortality
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Educating the public
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Basic life support
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Rapid defibrillation, emergency services infrastructure
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Morbidity—the hidden cost
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Summary
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Notes
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References
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