Low income residents living in minority neighborhoods have been found to have some two strikes that are against them. First, these persons usually have higher incidences of cardiac arrest happening out of hospital than average and secondly, the chances of the patient getting bystander CPR are essentially below average as discovered by a team of researchers at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine.

Cardiac arrest which involves the heart losing its function abruptly occurs due to the malfunctioning of the electrical system of the heart. When this happens, death could occur immediately or shortly after the appearance of the symptoms as noted by the American Heart Association. When conducting the interview, the team of researchers interviewed a group of residents who loved in lower income neighborhoods who were primarily Hispanics in Denver. They aimed at learning why these persons seemed to be very reluctant to call emergency medical help or even perform CPR to cardiac arrest victims.

What the researchers found out

The top reason why most of them fail to call 911 when a cardiac arrest strikes is the distrust they have on police as noted by the researchers. In addition, most of the participants of the study also believed that there were no chances an ambulance would take a patient to the hospital; without paying for it first. This is essentially a very common practice that you will find in Mexico. In addition, most of the people also weren’t well informed about cardiac arrest symptoms or how they could possibly use CPR to save a life.

Still, the researchers noted that the residents were very reluctant to come in contact with a stranger while performing CPR as they feared being misinterpreted. Still, there was also the issue of language barrier as well which happened either with the first responders or the 911 dispatchers. This ended up reducing the willingness of the locals in helping a person experiencing a cardiac arrest. The lead researcher noted that it is of paramount importance that something is done to overcome the significant barriers and ensure that Latinos who get a cardiac arrest receive timely medical care to boost their chances of surviving the ordeal.

CPR can help in times of cardiac arrest

The most important step that ought to be undertaken is providing public education that is culturally sensitive in regard to how CPR can help in times of cardiac arrest. There is also need to conduct a research in the future and gain a better understanding as to how targeted education campaigns that are more culturally sensitive could help reduced the risk of cardiac arrest patients dying in these neighborhoods. More needs to be done to ensure that the Hispanics are more willing to provide bystander CPR which could end up saving a patient’s life in the face of a cardiac arrest.