The American journal of medicine
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Initiation of quick prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care completed the total system needed to provide emergency and convalescent coronary care for a community. Subsequently, annual community rates for coronary death during ambulance transport fell by 62 per cent and for prehospital coronary death by 26 per cent in people under 70 years of age. In cardiac arrest due to acute myocardial infarction, prompt successful prehospital correction of ventricular fibrillation and asystole yielded long-term survival in two thirds of cases. ⋯ The present frequency of coronary death during ambulance transport, 9 to 22 per cent of prehospital coronary deaths in this and other surveys, suggests that the prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care component needs improvement in many communities. By reducing prehospital and ambulance coronary death rates, prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care for acute myocardial infarction constitutes an essential component of the total system approach to emergency coronary care. Since prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care have cheaply and effectively expedited and abbreviated hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction, and lowered community death rates from coronary artery disease, its adoption throughout the United States and the western world seems justified.