Bystander CPR helps cardiac arrest survivors return to work: study

Dallas – More people are able to return to work after suffering cardiac arrest thanks in part to an increased number of bystanders performing CPR, researchers conclude in a new Danish study.

More than 4,000 workers who suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Denmark during 2001-2011 were studied; of those, researchers found 75 percent were able to return to work. Additionally, the chances of returning to work among survivors who received CPR from bystanders were 40 percent greater than workers who did not receive such aid.

Cardiac arrests can stop the flow of oxygen to the brain. When bystanders perform CPR, it helps deliver enough oxygen to minimize brain damage and result in the victim later being able to return to work, according to Kristian Kragholm, the study’s lead author and clinical assistant at Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark.

“We already know CPR helps save lives – and now our findings suggest there is even more benefit in performing it,” Kragholm said in a press release from the American Heart Association, which published the study online May 4 in its journal Circulation.