“The contribution of citizen rescuers to survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest”

In the Netherlands, a citizen assistance system is employed that consists of citizens who are summoned to aid victims of a cardiac arrest. This dissertation shows that the system increases the chance of survival of sudden cardiac arrest (with cardiac cause) outside the hospital from 16% to 27% and that the majority of these survivors leave the hospital in good condition. The cause of the cardiac arrest was found to be cardiac in 83% and 84% of the cardiac arrest in and around the victims home. It also turned out that the performance of the system depends on the location of the cardiac arrest, the arrival time of the ambulance, if the arrest was witnessed by someone and the time of day on which the arrest occurred (eg. During the day or throughout the night).