• C Stassart, S Stipulante, R Zandona, A Gillet, and A Ghuysen.
• Département de Psychologie, Université de Liège, Belgique.
• Rev Med Liege. 2017 May 1; 72 (5): 236-240.

AbstractThe occurrence of an unexpected sudden death puts the witnesses of this event in a situation of high emotional impact. The benefit to allow the families of victims to dispense the first resuscitation techniques has been emphasized. However, little data exist on the emotional impact of a cardio-respiratory arrest outside the hospital on the witness, who is often a close family member. Recently, we investigated the presence of psychological distress and the factors influencing it, in the active practice of basic resuscitation gestures by the witnesses guided by the operator 112. Resuscitation by a person not belonging to the medical corps seems not to be devoid of psychological impact. Indeed, the presence of psychological distress is observed for most of witnesses questioned 6 to 10 days after the call but also 3 months later. This work highlights therefore the importance of identifying the coping strategies involved, in order to promote potentially beneficial strategies and limit the trauma associated with this type of event.

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