VICTORIAN bystanders are stepping up to help save lives as cardiac arrest emergency cases reach record highs, according to new research by Ambulance Victoria (AV).
The latest Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry (VACAR) Annual Report reveals paramedics responded to 7361 cardiac arrests in 2021/22 – a rise of 5.8 per cent.
When cardiac arrests were witnessed by members of the public, 79 per cent of people were willing to step up and start life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) – up from 77 per cent a year earlier.
More bystanders are also using public automated external defibrillators (AEDs), which greatly improve survival rates. In 2021/22, 107 cardiac arrest patients received a shock from an AED before paramedics arrived, up from 82 the year prior.
“We know that minutes matter in a cardiac arrest and that if a person receives bystander CPR and defibrillation, their chance of survival more than doubles,” the director of research and evaluation at AV, Dr Ziad Nehme, said.
“We can proudly say that Victoria has best cardiac survival rates in Australia and one of the best in the world.”
Ziad said GoodSAM Responders can make a real difference. “GoodSAM is a life-saving smartphone app that connects Victorians in cardiac arrest with volunteers who are willing to start CPR and use an AED in the first critical minutes while paramedics are on the way,” he said.
“We have thousands of GoodSAM volunteers willing to help us save lives across the state and I urge more people to sign up.”
There are three simple steps to save someone’s life: Call (Call Triple 000), Push (Perform CPR) and Shock (use an AED).
The VACAR annual report has been monitoring and improving the treatment and care of out-of-hospital-cardiac arrest patients for more than two decades.
Ziad said the Resuscitation Quality Snapshot was an exciting and innovative addition to this year’s report.
“This is first time any ambulance service in the world has delved this deep into the quality of resuscitation provided by paramedics,” Ziad said.
“It shows our highly skilled paramedics provided excellent resuscitation, including recognising cardiac arrests early, performing high-quality CPR, delivering early defibrillation and additional advanced care.
“AV is a research-focused organisation, and we use evidence-based insights such as these reports to drive innovation and continually improve outcomes and best care for our patients.”
Despite record ambulance demand, the average emergency response time to a cardiac arrest was 8.2 minutes, with most patients defibrillated in just over 10 minutes.
Patients who received bystander CPR had a higher survival rate (11 per cent) compared with those with no bystander CPR (5 per cent).
The report shows 79 per cent of patients suffered cardiac arrests at home. The median age of cardiac arrest patients was 70 years, with 74 years the average age for women and 67 years for men. Men made up 65 per cent of patients.
The VACAR report is available via https://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/about-us/research/research-publications/
