You are here
Would you recognize a life-threatening medical emergency right in front of you?
A study, published this week in the Academic Emergency Medicine journal, found nine out of ten people would not recognize a cardiac arrest if it happened right in front of them.
Dr. David Barbic and his team surveyed more than 230 people around B.C. The research participants watched a video clip of a person demonstrating a cardiac arrest and were asked to identify the medical emergency. Only 11 per cent of participants recognized a cardiac arrest, though nearly half of them had some kind of training in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).
Opioid overdose also difficult for public to recognize
There seemed to be greater awareness amongst participants about opioid overdoses, but still, six in ten could not correctly identify that medical emergency.
“Resources focused on training bystanders will be of little use if people cannot recognize these emergencies,” said Dr. Barbic, who is also a researcher with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS). “There is a need for diverse, repeated opportunities to train people on when to act.”