Hardy, Fischer present at SCAA national conference

Patricia Hardy and Randy Fischer of Ringdahl Ambulance companies in Jamestown and Lisbon, N.D., and Fergus Falls and Pelican Rapids, Minn., were invited participants and presenters at the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association national conference in Philadelphia on Oct. 16-20. Fischer is chair of the local chapter of SCAA and gave a presentation about the past year’s efforts around the area to raise awareness and train people about sudden cardiac arrest and the importance of immediate cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and the use of an automatic external defibrillator. The presentation called “How to Save a Life” is free to any organization requesting the SCAA to speak at its gathering and Fischer said they have spoken to more than 3,000 people this year.

The mission of the SCAA is to prevent loss of life from sudden cardiac arrest and members work to accomplish this by raising awareness and educating communities on CPR and use of AEDs. Fischer and Hardy are trying to build membership.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the U.S., killing nearly 300,000 Americans each year.?National survival rates remain in the 5-7 percent range. Studies have shown that immediate CPR and quick access (of less than 8 minutes) to an AED can increase survival rates to as high as 30-50 percent.?ACEP’s State of Resuscitation survey — funded by a grant from ZOLL Medical Corporation — of more than 1,000 emergency physicians found that 90 percent believed that current U.S. resuscitation practices were not very effective, and that 88 percent consider better bystander CPR as the most critical element in improving survival rates.

New recommendations issued earlier this year by the American Heart Association that encourage compression-only CPR should make it easier for bystanders to respond to someone who collapses from SCA.?Previous studies had shown that the reluctance of providing mouth-to-mouth breathing assistance discouraged many people from responding.

Fischer and Hardy met with Dr. Vince Mosesso, SCAA medical director, and many other national leaders and researchers in resuscitation throughout the four days at the conference. In addition, they met with survivors of SCA. People who have experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and were revived through immediate application of CPR, use of an AED and emergency medical response and hospital care.

Membership in the SCAA is free and provides valuable information on prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest. www.suddencardiacarrest.org.

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