To advance our vision to eliminate preventable death and disabilities from sudden cardiac arrest in youth by 2030, we've launched a new, dynamic website with tips and tools you can use to become an SCA prevention champion right in your own home. Start protecting your young hearts today.
Join Operation Prevention and Take the Prevention Promise!
Join Operation Prevention: a national movement to learn the simple steps to staging a prevention intervention in your home, school and community. One of the biggest misconceptions about sudden cardiac arrest is that "it just happens" and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The truth is that SCA IS preventable-but that doesn't happen by chance. Check out our tips and tools for assessing your child's heart history and taking steps to protect their heart.
SCA is the #1 cause of death on school campuses. To combat this grim statistic, PHW helped develop a national Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP): a toolkit schools can use to assure cardiac emergency preparedness is part of their Emergency Action Plan. Check out the support CERPs have from school nurses so you can advocate for one to be implemented in your school.
Sudden cardiac arrest is the #1 killer of student athletes and the #2 medical cause of death under 25. Yet heart screenings are not a regular part of youth check-ups or pre-participation sports physicals, even though the first symptom of an undiagnosed heart condition could be death. As recently published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology, Dr. Richard Myerberg asserts that "...we now need an effort...for improving prediction and prevention of sudden cardiac arrest." Until then, parents can stage their own intervention by doing a heart history risk assessment and talking to your doctor about getting a quick, painless and noninvasive heart screening. Download a free cardiac questionnaire now!
A National Look at Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survival
PHW attended the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) workshop to discuss Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act. Given the SCA survival rate in the U.S. has remained at 7% for the past 30+ years, the IOM recommended a fundamental shift in thinking regarding the treatment and standardization of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).
To combat that statistic, the IOM is recommending that Congress declare a war on cardiac arrest as a nation by creating a central registry to make SCA a reportable condition, mandating the widespread implementation of AEDs in all buildings, and launching a national public awareness campaign that underscores the fact that SCA is preventable if we take action.
