Chances of woman surviving cardiac arrest outside hospital is bleak; Here's why

Women are less likely to get CPR if cardiac arrest happens outside a hospital, studies have shown.

Women are less likely to get emergency first aid if cardiac arrest happens outside a hospital, studies have shown.

Suddenly if a person’s heart stops beating, it is called a cardiac arrest. This is a medical emergency and the person just has a few minutes to survive. 

Doing immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the only way to revive a patient when the heart’s electric machinery goes off.

If not given within five to six minutes of the patient becoming unconscious, the condition can cause irreversible damage to the brain and the body.

While medical teams are trained enough to act promptly, bystanders outside hospitals are not. If the affected are men, they are more likely to get CPR from strangers, however, the chances are bleaker for women.

As per experts, existing social stereotypes can prevent women from getting help outside the hospital premises.

Poor training in CPR

Though CPR is a life-saving procedure, the knowledge about it is alarmingly low. 

The percentage of bystanders knowing to give CPR can be as high as 65 per cent to as low as 3 per cent in some communities.

As per the American Heart Association, only 2 per cent of adults in India know how to give a life-saving CPR.

Karnataka shows an even poor rate of 1.5 per cent of adults having the knowledge of resuscitation, a study has found out.

Women at a disadvantage

If a woman gets a cardiac attack in a public place, the chances of her getting CPR are even low.

An Australia-based study analysed cardiac arrests in about 4,491 people between 2017-19 found women (65 per cent) were less likely to get first aid from strangers as opposed to men (74 per cent).

Another study published in the journal Circulation discovered three major themes on why bystanders hesitate in giving CPR to women. The following were the major factors that prevented strangers to resuscitate women:

• Some bystanders sexualised a woman’s body and perceived the presence of breast as an obstacle to giving CPR.

• Some bystanders perceived women as frail and more prone to injury from CPR.

• Some bystanders couldn’t understand the cues of respiratory distress among women.

• Some perceived a threat to their public image and feared getting accused of inappropriate touching.

CPR dummies are not gender inclusive

It has been a common trend in common CPR training centers to include dummies which are flat-chested as opposed to those having breasts.

So most people training on these CPR manikins are not accustomed to resuscitating a woman. 

As per The Conversation, about 75 percent of the CPR manikins analysed in an experiment were found to have flat torsos with no specified gender.

While breasts don’t change the technique, they can influence the willingness of bystanders to attempt or avoid giving CPR to women.

Also, the ‘perceived frailty’ can also prevent women from getting effective CPR.

Although rare, hard chest compressions can cause the rib to break, however, the benefits of a timely CPR outweighs the injury caused by a forceful resuscitation. 

How to perform CPR ?

If one sees a person getting unconscious or short of breath outside hospital, one must promptly call for rescue. 

However, one must attempt CPR before an ambulance arrives.

For trained doctors, CPR comprises both hands-on chest compression and rescue breathing (mouth to mouth), however, for bystander chest compressions are often recommended.

The following series of steps must be followed to resuscitate a person:

• Interlock the fingers of both hands and place them on the chest of the person.

• The rescuer’s shoulders must be directly above their hands.

• Using the body weight, a rescuer must press 5 to 6 cm deep down on the victim’s chest.

• In every compression cycle, allow the chest to come back to its original position.

• Repeat these compressions 100-120 times a minute till the time an ambulance arrives.