EMERGENCY treatment courses are advised to be made mandatory for people before they obtain their driver’s licenses and police officers, according to some political advisers at a seminar Sunday, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.
Incomplete figures showed that more than 500,000 people die untimely deaths each year in China, meaning that about 1,500 people die unexpectedly everyday, said Guo Ziyu, deputy director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center in Bao’an District, at the seminar on first aid.
Guo said nearly 80 percent of sudden deaths are related to cardiac arrests.
The number of sudden deaths in Shenzhen has also increased over the past four years from 1,897 deaths in 2014 to more than 3,000 reported last year.
However, less than 1 percent of people have been trained on first aid in the country.
Wen Yanhong, a first-aid coach with the Red Cross Society of China, said, “If we perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) upon patients within four minutes after they have a cardiac arrest, their chance of survival is higher than 50 percent. However, their chances of surviving are reduced by 10 percent for every minute that first aid is delayed, and the chance of bringing the patients back to life drop drastically after eight minutes.”
The currently low numbers of emergency automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available in public places make the situation more daunting. The survival rate of people suffering from sudden cardiac arrest is less than 5 percent in China, but the figure is nearly 30 percent in the United States.
“We are calling upon the government to legislate so as to get the whole society involved in emergency treatment,” said Xu Long, deputy director of Yantian People’s Hospital Group and a political adviser.
Another member, an associate professor with the Law School of Shenzhen University, Peng Bo, agreed with Xu on his stance for legislation.
Zhang Hong, deputy director of the Shenzhen Center for Prehospital Care, suggested that first-aid knowledge be spread among police officers and law enforcement officers, as they are often the first to arrive at the scene of an emergency and would be capable of administering emergency treatment.
“There are many community health-care centers in Shenzhen, and these centers can offer first-aid courses to residents,” said Zhao Peng, head of community health care management center under Bao’an People’s Hospital.
Li Lin, an official with the city’s health commission, said that a draft of regulations on emergency treatment has already been handed to the city’s legislature for review and will be released soon.
Li said the city government will spend 100 million yuan (US$15.89 million) on purchasing 133 ambulances and 1,000 AEDs to be installed in public places. Shenzhen purchased 500 AEDs last year.