According to the Hartstichting, CPR can be started within 6 minutes in case of cardiac arrest throughout the Netherlands. The national network of volunteers who can help with an AED in case of cardiac arrest has grown to 245,000 people. This was 170,000 four years ago. The number of AEDs has also grown significantly in recent years. Scattered across the country, there are now almost 24,000 hanging, compared to 12,000 AEDs four years ago.
Around 17,000 people are struck by cardiac arrest outside the hospital every year. Using an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator), a person in cardiac arrest can be resuscitated. In doing so, the first 6 minutes are crucial for the greatest chance of survival. Thanks to the network of 245,000 Dutch people, resuscitation can be started within six minutes in case of cardiac arrest throughout the Netherlands. According to the Hartstichting, this has created a nationwide resuscitation network.
Research by the Amsterdam UMC indicates that more people are surviving a cardiac arrest at home, according to the Heart Foundation. For example, in the Safety region Noord-Holland Noord, where long-term research was conducted, the survival rate in the event of a cardiac arrest at home increased from 26 to 39 per cent because the emergency control rooms also summoned citizen aid workers. The researchers claim that most people who suffer a cardiac arrest are at home at that time. The study results show that the mobilisation of citizen responders ensures that victims of cardiac arrest at home receive help faster. The time between reporting to the emergency control room and the first shock to restore heart rhythm fell from 11 minutes and 42 seconds to 9 minutes and 18 seconds. The number of people who had not been resuscitated before the ambulance arrived fell from 22 per cent to 9 per cent. Civilian rescuers with an AED administered the first shock to restore heart rhythm in 16 per cent of patients.
Around 17,000 people are affected by cardiac arrest outside hospitals every year, according to the Heart Foundation. At the end of the last century, the survival rate of this group was 9 per cent, now it is almost 25 per cent.
Source: Hartstichting
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