General

The Chain of Survival is a five-step process for providing treatment to victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) developed by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 1990 after several decades of research into SCA. It was designed in recognition of the fact that most episodes of SCA occur outside of a hospital, with death occurring within minutes of onset without treatment. Quick execution of each and every link is critical because the chances of survival decrease 7 to 10% with each passing minute.

When you call 911 it is essential that you stay calm and provide the dispatcher the information she needs to send EMS to the scene as quickly as possible.

In 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA), in order to improve a victim's chances of recovery and to simplify teaching of CPR skills, updated its CPR guidelines.

If your child's ankle gives way more and more easily during sports, and, eventually, during everyday activities, he has developed chronic ankle instability. Often times, such instability is the result of an ankle sprain that has not been allowed to fully heal. Repeated ankle sprains cause a loss of proprioception (communication between the central nervous system and the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the ankle), which, in turn can lead to faulty technique or a sudden loss of control or balance, either of which can, in turn, lead to even more sprains! If your child has a chronically unstable ankle, sports medicine experts say that a rehabilitation program supervised by a physical therapist is absolutely essential.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is an electrical malfunction of the heart which causes the heart to beat in an abnormal, chaotic rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF). The heart then loses its ability to effectively pump blood.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest and a heart attack have different symptoms, causes, and treatment.