A new alliance of Australia’s leading heart experts, paramedics, CPR and victim family groups met for the first time earlier this month to take united action against a sinister type of heart problem that kills thousands of Australians each year – suddenly and without warning.
Sudden cardiac arrest is said to affect 20,000 Australians each year, and the outcomes are grim.
According to EndUCD.org, 90% of people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest will die, with 2000 of these people being under the age of 50.
While in older people the cause of cardiac arrest is often linked to a background of known risk factors.
But in middle-aged and younger people there are several causes of cardiac arrest that are not reliably identified by risk factors. Genetics is a factor but sometimes the cause remains unknown.
What is known is many more thousands of Australians will continue to die from sudden cardiac arrest unless more is done to understand and prevent it.
That’s why Australia’s top cardiac, paramedic, CPR and victim family representatives have called the inaugural National Summit for Cardiac Arrest in Canberra, under the tagline ‘a race to save lives’ to develop an urgent strategy to encourage Governments to prioritise funding in two key areas:
- Education and awareness for bystanders
Helping more Australians know how they can try to restart a person’s heart should they be a bystander to a cardiac arrest, increasing the survival rate.
- Understanding who is at risk and how it can be prevented
A greater commitment by Governments to fund research that will unlock the mystery behind the cause of sudden cardiac arrest, leading to better prevention.
The Summit was held on 1 June in Canberra. A total of 69 participants from 45 organisations attended.
Founding members and funders of the inaugural Summit are the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Centenary Institute, End UCD, Heart Foundation of Australia, Heart of the Nation, and Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
