Alachua County announced last week that it has a cardiac arrest save rate about three times the national average.
According to the National Cardiac Arrest Registry, in 2007 the national average of patients discharged from the hospital after cardiac arrest was less than about 7 percent.
Out of the 133 cardiac arrest patients Alachua County Fire Rescue transported between 2012 and 2013, 28 were discharged from the hospital, which amounts to 21 percent according to AFCR.
Bill Northcutt, Alachua County Fire Rescue deputy chief of operations, said the fire rescue system is one of the reasons for its high survival rate.
“It’s just because of an aggressive team approach that we have responders throughout the community so we can provide that advanced treatment process,” he said.
Dr. Jamie Beth Conti, chief of cardiovascular medicine at UF Health Shands Hospital, said cardiac arrest means that someone’s heart stops, resulting in the patient’s death — unless there is intervention to prevent it.
ACFR Medical Director Christine Van Dillen said credit goes to the emergency responders, who “work 24 hours a day, responding to the calls day and night.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 3/12/2014 under the headline "Alachua County beats national average for cardiac arrest saves"]
