Medtronic Foundation and Take Heart Minnesota™ today announced a comprehensive statewide initiative, the first in the nation, designed to increase sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survival rates. SCA is a condition in which the heart abruptly stops without warning. More than 4,500 cases of SCA were reported in Minnesota in 2008, an average of 12.5 incidences per day. In St. Cloud and Anoka County, two communities participating in pilot programs, survival rates jumped from 9.3 percent to 17 percent in just two years.
When SCA strikes, treatment must be delivered within minutes and followed up with effective, appropriate care en route to and in the hospital for the best chance of survival. The Take Heart Minnesota initiative will implement a multi-pronged, systems-based approach that simultaneously coordinates and enhances SCA training and technologies for the general public, first responders (police/fire), and emergency medical services (EMS) (ambulance) as well as for effective post-resuscitation care in the hospital to maximize survival rates.
Because comprehensive statewide SCA survival data is currently lacking, part of Take Heart Minnesota’s initiative also will be to collect and track SCA incidents and “saves” throughout the state.
Out of the eight EMS regions in the state, Take Heart Minnesota will be expanding to five areas, including the South Central, Metro, Central, West Central and Southeast regions. These efforts will continue to grow with a goal to have all 17,000 first responders in the state trained by 2011.
Additionally, to make certain the correct equipment is available to rescuers, 5,500 ResQPODs®, an impedance threshold device (ITD), will be donated by Take Heart Minnesota partner Advanced Circulatory Systems Inc. to first responder agencies throughout Minnesota. An ITD is a device that enhances circulation while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
“We know we can improve survival rates when all the systems are working together,” says Dr. Keith Lurie, co-founder of Take Heart Minnesota and an electrophysiologist at St. Cloud Hospital. “By properly training the general public, first responders and hospital staff and arming them with state-of-the art technologies, we believe we can save at least one more Minnesotan each day.”