Sudden Cardiac Arrest Coalition Launches Advocacy

SCA occurs when the heart stops working and no blood can be pumped to the rest of the body. In essence, the heart's electrical system malfunctions. One common misconception among the general public is that SCA is the same as a heart attack. It is not a heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction, which is actually when a blockage in a blood vessel interrupts the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart, causing the heart muscle to die. 95% of all victims of SCA die because they do not receive life-saving defibrillation within 4 -- 6 minutes, before brain and permanent death start to occur. While the federal government has already made great strides in research, awareness, and treatment advances for many of our nation's major health threats -- like breast cancer, lung cancer, stroke and AIDS -- with SCA claiming more than 250,000 lives each year, the government must focus resources on a killer that takes more lives each year than any of those diseases. Sudden Cardiac Arrest Coalition

Source:/www.earthtimes.org