SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Korean cardiac arrest patients whose heart function recovered in an ambulance during their transfer to hospitals reached about 3,000 last year.
The National Fire Agency said Tuesday that the number of the cardiac arrest patients transferred by 119 rescue workers stood at 27,201 last year.
Among them, the number of so-called ‘voluntary circulation recovery’ patients whose heart function recovered before arriving at hospitals thanks to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) stood at 2,927.
The voluntary circulation recovery rate has been on an upward trend rising from 8.9 percent in 2016 to 10.5 percent in 2017, 10.6 percent in 2018 and 11 percent in 2019.
The gradual increase of the voluntary circulation recovery rate is attributable to the increase in the number of 119 ambulances and the introduction of a system that requires ambulances to be operated by three EMTs.
To address the blind spot in rescue services, the National Fire Agency allocated a total of 48 ambulances for agro-fishery villages that have no dedicated 119 ambulances starting from 2019, and plans to allocate 47 more by next year.
Image Credit: Yonhap / Philips International B.V. / photonews@koreabizwire.com
