CPR Survival Rates Can Differ Greatly by City

Several universities have stocked undesignated epinephrine autoinjectors in their dining halls to provide life-saving immediate care during allergic reactions, increasing students' sense of safety and confidence when dining on campus.

Two municipal court probation officers in Mount Vernon, Ohio, are leading an effort to install free-to-use NaloxBoxes across the county to help prevent overdose deaths. The boxes are installed in areas that are accessible 24/7 and contain helpful resources and naloxone, a medication that reverses the effects of opioid overdoses.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society teaches and trains volunteers in disaster response preparedness, like how to use search and rescue equipment, how to make improvised stretchers and various emergency rescue methods. The organization has a total of 68 units and has trained 13,336 volunteers since its formation in the 1970s.

Behind the nightly protests against racism and police brutality on Portland's streets for more than five months stands a network of street medics and mutual aid groups dedicated to equipping and protecting protesters, and treating their injuries after clashes with police. Portland's already-vibrant street medic community responded to the policing protests with emergency medical care. Their work, plus that of other mutual aid groups, has taken on an added dimension during the pandemic, with masks and hand sanitizer added to the list of supplies.

Combining the skills of medical emergency responders, crisis intervention specialists and social workers has had success in lowering the number of 911 calls for a fire department in Greeley, Colorado. Dubbed Squad 1, this goal of this unit is to triage the number of emergency calls coming in in order to allocate and extend resources where they are most needed.

Scoop and Run is a police practice that has saved lives. During a “scoop and run” police take gunshot or stab wound victims to the emergency room instead of waiting for an ambulance. Philadelphia is the only city, among cities with high rates of homicides, that has implemented “scoop and run” into policy. "Last year, a third of Philadelphia’s 1,223 shooting victims were delivered to a city trauma center.”

In Arizona, nonprofit organization, Sonoran Prevention Works, is providing the public with naloxone and training on its administration, in an effort to widen the scope of who is able to help during an opioid overdose. Training is similar to that of other first aid responses – participants receive background information, step-by-step directions, and the needed equipment. While law enforcement and medical professionals are open to the idea, they do so with caution about potential harm it could do.

Jason Friesen, an American paramedic who had served in Haiti after the earthquake, realized that many poor communities in the Caribbean were lacking the equivalent of the United States’ 911 emergency medical services, and were facing increased death tolls as a consequence. Friesen realized he could help such communities set up emergency response systems through the use of volunteers and a simple text message exchange. Now, his organization Trek Medics simplifies and democratizes the emergency dispatch system, and, as a result, saves lives in rural communities.

To aid in postpartum hemorrhage care, the Kisumu Medical and Education Trust distributes uterine balloon tamponade kits that can be used to stop excessive bleeding and prevent death after other measures have failed. The kits have been provided to more than 1,300 healthcare facilities in 23 countries and over 6,000 healthcare workers have been trained to use them.

To address maternal mortality, drapes with volume markings are being used to manage life-threatening bleeding after birth. The drapes collect the blood and are marked with measurements so healthcare workers can monitor blood loss and interfere and provide care before it’s too late. The drapes were tested in 78 hospitals throughout the country between August 2021 and the end of 2022 and allowed healthcare workers to interfere with excessive bleeding in time for 90% of patients.