Statistically, is learning CPR worth it?

Infant and child CPR classes are taught to babysitters and companies like the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association offer local classes all over the US. Many industries, such as Oil and Gas, Lifeguarding, and Rafting, have an OSHA requirement for their employees to keep an up-to-date CPR and First Aid card. Just looking at the statistics however, is learning CPR actually worth it?

Let's zoom out and look at one of the main problems that CPR is meant to help with. Cardiac arrest occurs when a heart's electrical system malfunctions. This malfunction causes an abnormal heart rhythm which means the heart is not functioning properly. If the heart is not doing its job, the brain and all of the other organs are not getting freshly oxygenated blood. The brain can only withstand roughly 4 minutes without oxygen before accruing irreparable brain damage. So it goes without saying that cardiac arrest is serious and life threatening, but how prevalent is it?

According to the American Heart Association, in the United States alone there are over 500,000 children and adults that experience cardiac arrest each year with a survival rate of less than 15%. If cardiac arrest takes place out of the hospital (which most overwhelmingly do) the survival rate drops to only 10%. So if you are just looking at statistics, it is easy to get discouraged when you realize the victim has a 1 in 10 chance of survival. However, with cardiac arrest incidents that did receive early and quality CPR the statistics improve drastically. Early CPR in the case of out of hospital cardiac arrest has been shown to double, or triple the survival rate.

If you were a betting person, 2 in 10, or even 3 in 10 still wouldn't be great odds. It’s important however, to keep perspective on what is happening in the body. The heart has stopped working which generally means that this is the victim's final problem. When facing mortality, any increase in chance is immense and well worth the effort.

Simply put, without CPR, someone who experiences an out of hospital cardiac arrest has a roughly 1 in 10 chance of survival, but with early CPR their chance of survival increases to 2 in 10 or even 3 in 10. This statistical increase is drastic, but to drive the point home further let’s inject some emotion into it. Imagine you are having dinner at home with a loved one, and they collapse and go into cardiac arrest. You have called 911 and are awaiting emergency response. In that helpless moment, if you could do something that would double or triple your loved one’s chance of living, you would do it without question. That is the power of CPR. Even though it doesn’t “solve the problem” when it comes to cardiac arrest, it keeps oxygenated blood circulating throughout the body and brain. It keeps the vessel alive, and it gives people a chance.

So, just looking at the statistics, is learning CPR worth it? The answer is inarguably yes.

If you are in the Salt Lake City area and want to learn infant or child CPR with one of our personalized hands-on classes, click the link below to see which class is best for you!

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