9 per cent of cardiac arrests in the community in 2020 occurred in people under 35

The emergency services responded to a total of 2,638 cardiac arrests in the community last year of which 75 per cent occurred in the home, the latest data has revealed.

According to the recently published 2020 annual report from the Out Of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Register (OHCAR), which collects information on the number of and outcomes for people who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting, the vast majority or 83 per cent of cardiac arrests occurred in a private setting (home, farm or residential institution), 75 per cent occurred in people’s homes and 18 per cent happened in public.

More than half or 67 per cent of cardiac arrest patients were male while 33 per cent were female.

The rate of bystander CPR, where a member of the public who has witnessed a cardiac arrest steps in to provide life-saving CPR, was 84 per cent; the same percentage as 2019 however, since 2012 the overall rate of bystander CPR has increased from 60 to 84 per cent the report noted.

The number of cardiac arrest patients who received treatment with a defibrillator before the arrival of the emergency services was 161 or 6 per cent of all cardiac arrests and of these 47 people survived. This figure is a reduction on 2019 where a defibrillator was used on 187 cardiac arrest patients however, the report notes one of the factors that may explain this reduction was that Community First Responder groups were temporarily stood down in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, in January 2020 there were 266 Community First Responder groups linked with the National Ambulance Service and approximately 1,800 AEDs or defibrillators across the country.

Out of a total of 2,638 people who had a cardiac arrest in 2020 the survival rate was 6.2 per cent or 164 people, of these, 134 had good to moderate neurological function on discharge from hospital, the report stated. This is a slight reduction on the 2019 survival rate of 7.4 per cent or 190 patients.

The OHCAR report also noted that 9 per cent of cardiac arrests in 2020 occurred in people under the age of 35.

Commenting Brigid Sinnott, Head of Resus at the Irish Heart Foundation said, “It’s great to see that bystander CPR rates are remaining extremely high, this means that Irish people are very willing to help in the event of an emergency. We are also lucky to have excellent emergency call takers who advise how to recognise cardiac arrest and perform CPR. We need to do more work in the area of getting more AEDs onto chests before the arrival of the ambulance service , plans are being put together for this and 2022 will be all about raising awareness of AEDs. By starting CPR, you can make the difference between life and death.”