San Ramon Valley Heart Attack Survival Rates Double the National Average

If someone in the San Ramon Valley suffers a heart attack with another person present, and the cardiac arrest is shockable by a defibrillator or CPR, the patient’s chance of survival is 120 percent higher than the average of the rest of the country according to the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year, and 735,000 Americans have a heart attack.

Here’s a breakdown of statistics provided by the Fire Protection District:

Nationally, if someone experienced a sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting in 2014, their chances of surviving were 10.3 percent, depending on factors such as whether a bystander witnessed the arrest and was able to call 911 quickly, if the patient’s heart was in a shockable rhythm (responsive to defibrillation), or if a bystander performed some type of intervention (like CPR or defibrillation with an Automated External Defibrillator – AED).

In 2014 a cardiac patient’s chances of survival were higher in the San Ramon Valley than the National average, at 13.2 percent, but jumped to 71.4 percent for patients whose cardiac arrest was witnessed and who were in a shockable rhythm.

A patient’s chances of survival further jumped to 80 percent for a witnessed, shockable arrest and where a bystander performed some type of intervention like CPR or defibrillation.

Compared to the National average of 32.8 percent for witnessed/shockable and 36.3 percent for witnessed/shockable/intervention(CPR)-performed, residents of the San Ramon Valley have about a 120 percent greater chance of surviving a witnessed, shockable heart attack than their friends and family in most of the rest of the country.

“We are very proud of our cardiac arrest survival statistics,” said District Fire Chief Paige Meyer. “We attribute our success to many factors, including our 911 Communication Center that utilizes Emergency Medical Dispatching (EMD), our rigorous paramedic training program, state of the art equipment on all our fire engines and ambulances, the development of our PulsePoint mobile phone app and our community outreach program that teaches hands-only CPR to over 2000 residents each year.”

District Deputy Chief of EMS/Logistics Derek Krause added, “The challenge for us this year is to fully understand how we achieved such a phenomenal save rate in 2014, be able to consistently repeat 2014’s success, and to share what we learn with as many EMS agencies as are interested in the results of our internal evaluation. And, quite frankly, just because we have an 80 percent save rate doesn’t mean we don’t owe it to our citizens to try to close that last 20 percent.”

If you’d like to learn CPR, contact the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.