The main cause of cardiac arrest is heart disease, but it can also be caused by electrocution, drowning, choking and trauma. Cardiac arrest can also occur without any known causes.

When cardiac arrest occurs, the casualty's breathing and heart will stop functioning normally. As a result, blood and oxygen stops circulating in the body. When this happens, brain cells will die and permanent brain death occurs. After 10 minutes, the casualty's chance of survival are close to zero. The casualty loses about 1% chance of survival for every 6 seconds that passes.

That is how fast you need to act.

You may not realise this and most likely, no one has mentioned this to you before. You are the most important person to the casualty and your presence is most critical to his or her surivival.

Information taken from the My True Hero book
www.mytrueherobook.com

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a widely known emergency procedure that most have known from watching TV. The benefits of CPR also improves on the way that you look at life.

• Ability to better perform CPR under stress
• Appreciate the quality of life
• Provide on-scene CPR rapidly with minimal shock
• Decrease your fear of crowds
• Increase the chances of survival of the person that your are
  performing CPR