What Is the Survival Rate of a Heart Attack With and Without CPR?

Madkins0 answered:
According to some statistics...

• Nation-wide chances of surviving a significant heart attack (that was severe enough to put the victim in a Cardiac Care Unit for at least 3 days) runs about 7%
• Doing prompt, effective CPR improves odds of a person surviving by about 70%- note that this number is for ALL heart attacks, not just the severe ones described above.
• Other things that affect survival rate are local wellness statistics (local obesity rate, local diet, etc.), access to good cardiac care specialists and facilities, good paramedic response levels, etc.
• Some communities, such as Boston and Seattle, brag about a 40% survival rate- although it is unclear if they are using the same definition of severity described above.

Laurence W answered:
I am an emergency response team member at work. We get Red Cross refresher courses every year from two paramedics and an ER nurse. I am also a heart patient, and do a lot of research.

1. Just over 50% of first heart attacks are fatal.
2. CPR May be good 50% of the time by trained people. But much of it is by the untrained. I believe the real number is under 20%.

It is very difficult to compress an adult's chest a 2 inch minimum, or 1/3 of the chest depth of a heavy adult. That is the minimum. The pumping rate for life saving CPR needs to be at about 90-100 pumps a minute. Rescue breathing has been abandoned unless there is a 2nd person to do it. Just pump, the reflex expansion of the chest will provide the inflow of air.

If you really hope to save someone's life with heart disease, help them change their diet, lifestyle and get 30 minutes light exercise every day of the week. They need to be happy, content, and listen music that is joyful to them.

Thomas answered:
I am a medical profession for 25 years - a code team member for most of these and it is not like on TV I am sorry to say.

I've witnessed cardiac arrests with trained personnel on hand about and 50% survive but only 25% live to discharge from medical facility. A significant percentage, maybe 10-15% of those who survive, have deficits ranging from mild to severe enough to make independent living impossible. Unwitnessed events have about half the initial success's with very poor long term prognoses.