But the service of treating real heart attack victims goes beyond the local level. We are training younger people but it is the older people who have the attacks. According to U.S. statistics from 1995, coronary heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America, killing one out of every 4.8 citizens. Draper said the chance for survival plummets 10 to 12 percent every minute that a heart attack victim goes without aid. However, if a bystander performs CPR, the victim's chances of survival only drop six percent per minute.
Heart attacks cause some tissue death within four minutes and brain death within eight minutes.
CPR can buy precious minutes before advanced care arrives. The Heart Saver course serves as a springboard for other opportunities to learn about cardiac health. A pediatrics program is slated to begin through the University's Children's Medical Center. This initiative will teach CPR to family members of pediatric cardiology patients. As part of the prenatal education program at the Women's Center, the program will teach expectant mothers CPR and other infant safety issues.