Resuscitation possible within six minutes everywhere in NL

The national network of volunteers who can help in the case of cardiac arrest with an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) has grown to 245,000 people. Four years ago, there were 170,000. The number of AEDs also increased significantly in recent years. There are now nearly 24,000 AEDs scattered across the country, up from 12,000 four years ago.

As a result, resuscitation can be started within six minutes throughout the Netherlands, according to Hartstichting. It will celebrate this milestone with various campaigns in The Hague on Monday, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander. Treatment within six minutes offers the best chance of survival.

According to the foundation, civilian emergency workers are on site 2.5 minutes faster than an ambulance. The time between a report to 112 and at the resuscitation call center HartslagNu fell from 1 minute and 36 seconds to 51 seconds over the past years.

Research by Amsterdam UMC shows that more people survive a cardiac arrest at home, according to Hartsichting. In Noord-Holland Noord, for example, where the hospital conducted long-term research, the survival rate in the event of a cardiac arrest at home rose from 26 percent to 29 percent because the control room also dispatched civilian emergency workers.

According to Hartstichting, approximately 17,000 people have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital every year. At the end of the last century, the survival rate of this group was 9 percent. Now that's almost 25 percent.