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Outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain low, especially in ethnic neighborhoods, because educational messages about bystander CPR aren't getting through -- in part because they're not tailored to the audience receiving them, according to an advisory from the American Heart Association (AHA). Survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest vary geographically from 16% in Seattle to 0.2% in Detroit, according to the advisory, which was published in the Feb. 25 issue of Circulation. Bystanders provide CPR only 25% of the time, and 15%...

Advocates will testify before the House of Representatives Education Committee Friday in favor of legislation that would require all Washington State high school students learn CPR and would put portable defibrillators (AEDs) in all high schools. According to the American Heart Association, there are 360,000 cases of sudden cardiac arrest in the United States each year and only about a third of these people receive CPR. Only 10 percent survive. The association claims CPR can double, or even triple, survival rates among cardiac arrest patients. Supporters of House...