Overview
- Public health leaders say immediate chest compressions are crucial because brain damage can begin within three to five minutes while emergency services often arrive after 10–15 minutes.
- About 140,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen each year in Germany and only roughly one in ten people survive, so officials estimate better bystander action could save about 10,000 additional lives annually.
- North Rhine-Westphalia has made CPR mandatory this school year with a 90-minute module for grades seven to nine, joining five other states that already require resuscitation training in curricula.
- The Franziskus Hospital in Bielefeld has launched a 168-hour nonstop CPR relay during the Week of Resuscitation that uses school classes, volunteers and medical teams to teach skills and reduce fear of acting.
- Dispatch-centre telephone guidance raises willingness to start CPR from about 64% to 83% in surveys, and lawmakers plan to enshrine telephone-guided CPR in emergency-reform measures to expand that support nationwide.