A new alliance of Australia’s leading heart experts, paramedics, CPR and family groups of victims is taking joint action against sudden cardiac arrest.
This heart problem affects 20,000 Australians each year, and the results are sad: 90% of people with sudden cardiac arrest die, 2,000 of them under the age of 50.1.
These deaths have two major costs: in the form of incalculable pain for the thousands of families left each year, and nearly $ 2 billion a year for the economy.2
In the elderly, the cause is more likely to be a heart attack where a coronary artery suddenly becomes blocked. These usually occur in the context of known risk factors, according to the alliance.
However, in middle-aged and young people there are several causes of cardiac arrest that are not reliably identified by risk factors. Genetics is a factor, but sometimes the cause is unknown. What is known is that many more thousands of Australians will continue to die from sudden cardiac arrest unless more is done to understand and prevent it.
That’s why the new alliance, which includes The Australian Cardiovascular Alliance, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Centenary Institute, End UCD, National Heart Foundation of Australia, Heart of the Nation and Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, recently named the National Summit inaugural Cardiac. Arrest for developing an urgent strategy to encourage governments to prioritize funding in two key areas:
- Spectator Education and Awareness: Helping more Australians learn how to try to restart a person’s heart in case they are spectators of a cardiac arrest, increasing the survival rate.
- Understanding who is at risk and how to prevent it: a greater commitment by governments to fund research that will unravel the mystery behind the cause of sudden cardiac arrest, leading to better prevention.
References
- It helps to end unexplained heart death
- Press Release: Sudden heart failure costs Australia nearly $ 2 billion a year
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