Why do we send so many people to a cardiac arrest?

I did a fair amount of traveling and teaching in 2013 and I've been struck by the number of people who have been absolutely gobsmacked by the number of rescuers my fire department sends to a sudden cardiac arrest (1 ambulance, 2 engines, and a battalion chief). I think there are several reasons for this. In the first place, most jurisdictions don't have the resources, or at least say they don't have the resources, to do what we we do. But I think the real issue is that people don't understand the benefit of sending 9 to 11 people to a sudden cardiac arrest. In fact, some have argued that sending that many people only encourages therapies (like drugs and tracheal intubation) that have not been proven to positively effect neurologically intact survival.  I disagree. The two issues are not related. Aside from the fact that we identified this additional staffing on the first alarm as a best practice after speaking with some of the best EMS systems in the country (those few who can prove it), let's look at the big picture. First we need to consider that sudden cardiac arrest, particularly witnessed VF arrest, is a survivable event — when a process is in place to save that life. Although I don't take credit for the maxim, I have said many times that "every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results that it gets" and I certainly believe that. If the planets need to be in perfect alignment for a patient to survive in your sys...
Source: EMS 12-Lead - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: ems-topics patient-management cardiac arrest checklist chain-of-survival Pit Crew CPR resuscitation Source Type: research