Importance of beginning prompt cardiopulmonary resuscitation as a factor in survival in emergency medical care
The article presents an overview of 14 months of operational experience in prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the data collected during this period from the RMS Centre, Sarajevo. Between June 1996 and August 1997, the EMS teams dispatched from EMS Centre resuscitated 106 cases of non-traumatic respiratory and cardiac arrest. The data includes analyses of the reasons for this vital stoppage, employing standard measures for classifying each case. From the total number of cases studied, 18 patients were successfully resuscitated (16.98%), and with spontaneous respiration and circulation, were transported to the emergency room, but only six patients were released from the hospital after definite treatment (5.66%). The conclusions drawn from the study indicate that CPR is the most critical factor in the successful prehospital resuscitation of cardiac arrest victims, and that educated non-professionals can play an important role in life-saving during the critical period prior to the arrival of EMS providers. More work on this topic (i.e. Community education and information) is clearly needed in order to better understand the practical implications of this assertion.