Neth Heart J
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Recently we showed that a citizen volunteer system using text message alerts improves survival of out-of-hospital sudden circulatory arrest (OHCA). It is important to characterise the OHCA population encountered by the volunteers regarding circumstances and causes of the arrests. ⋯ The volunteer system is predominantly activated in situations for which it was developed; cases with cardiac aetiology (58%) and cases in the home environment (84%). The majority of patients encountered by the volunteers had 'hearts too good to die', underscoring the benefit of deploying citizen rescuers in programs to improve survival of OHCA.