In December 2007, Congress unanimously passed a resolution to create National CPR and AED Awareness Week. Occurring during the first week of June each year, National CPR and AED Awareness Week will increase public training in and awareness of the use of CPR and AEDs.
The sad truth is most people don’t survive a cardiac arrest. Getting people to act quickly in a cardiac arrest emergency is critical to a victim’s survival because time is not on their side. Four to six minutes is the window of opportunity for someone to act before it is too late, but fewer than one-third of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from someone nearby. Most cardiac arrest victims collapse at home. You have the ability to save the life of a loved one by learning CPR.
Public placement of automated external defibrillators (AED) can also improve the changes of survival. An AED can evaluate a person's heart rhythm and deliver a shock in a safe manner.
During CPR/AED week, check back for additional information on our efforts to improve survival rates, how you can help and policies efforts in each state.
This post is part of our series on CPR/AED Awareness Week. To see all CPR/AED Awareness week posts click here.
One Response to "Welcome to CPR/AED Awareness Week!"