When heartbeats suddenly stop, if someone nearby performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation before taking the ambulance to the hospital, the survival rate is 2.2 times higher and the brain function recovery rate is 3.2 times higher, as reported on the 18th.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency noted this in the '2024 first half acute cardiac arrest investigation statistics' released that day. They investigated 16,578 patients who experienced acute cardiac arrest in the first half of last year. The agency has been releasing semiannual statistics on acute cardiac arrest since 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the acute cardiac arrest patients who were discharged alive, 1,527, or 9.2%, did so. Among them, 1,053 patients, or 6.4%, recovered enough brain function to return to daily life before discharge. This is an increase of 0.4 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
The role of general public cardiopulmonary resuscitation was significant in increasing the survival rate and brain function recovery rate of acute cardiac arrest patients.
Before arriving at the hospital, the number of cases where a civilian performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, excluding emergency personnel and medical staff, was 4,307, or 30.2%. This is an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among patients who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation from bystanders, 616 survived. Among those who did not receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 89 out of 1,393 survived. The survival rates were 14.3% and 6.4%, respectively, showing a twofold difference.
Of the patients who received bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 493, or 11.4%, had recovered brain function. In contrast, only 50 patients, or 3.6%, recovered brain function without it. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation increased the brain function recovery rate threefold.
Acute cardiac arrest was due to diseases like myocardial infarction or arrhythmia in 77.8% of cases. External factors accounted for the highest number of incidents, including falls (5.6%), followed by transportation accidents (4.2%), strangulation (3.9%), suffocation (3.6%), and poisoning (1.9%).
The occurrence locations included private (non-public) places like homes (45.1%), ambulances (8.4%), and nursing facilities (6.2%), making up 64%. Public areas, including roads, highways, and commercial facilities (5.7% each), accounted for 17.8%. This indicates that there are far more situations where bystanders should perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation than medical personnel or emergency responders.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Ji Young-mi stated, "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation plays a decisive role in patient survival and recovery," and added, "We will expand bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation." The overall results of the acute cardiac arrest investigation for 2024 will be announced in December.