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A bigger focus on high-performance CPR is making southwest Snohomish County among the safest places in the U.S. to experience a cardiac arrest. New data shows South County Fire’s cardiac arrest survival rate* is 71.4%, according to the 2024 CARES report. This is nearly double the national average of 36.3%, .
“Firefighters are very deliberately focused on providing the absolute best CPR for your loved one,” said Tom Keene, South County Fire’s Battalion Chief of Emergency Medical Services. “We see the difference it makes, not just in helping a person survive cardiac arrest, but allowing them to live a normal life afterward.”
South County Fire responds to a cardiac arrest call about once every 36 hours. Nine to 12 firefighters are dispatched, each working simultaneously in a very specific, life-saving role.
“We need to have someone doing chest compressions, but we have to rotate that person every two minutes because that’s when people start to get tired and you don’t get the same quality of compressions,” Keene said.
Other roles include maintaining the patient’s airway, establishing I.V. access and administering medications.
“We put a lot of focus on being really good at CPR because it saves lives,” Keene said. “If it means your loved one gets to go back to their normal life, we’ll give nothing less than our absolute best.”
South County Fire paramedics teach twice each year at Seattle’s Resuscitation Academy where organizations travel from around the country and world to learn how to improve cardiac arrest survival in their communities.
This shows what a great job Chief Keene and his team are doing. However, I think it is important to note that the survival rates you quote in this article – 71.4% and 36.3% respectively – are for patients who fall into the Utstein subgroup. These are patients with the best chance of survival – bystander witness and a shockable rhythm. The overall rate of survival is 10.2% for all patients who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.