SOME ADVICE ON WHERE TO HAVE YOUR NEXT HEART ATTACK….One of the lessons from Shannon Brownlee’s book Overtreated is that you really ought to avoid hospitals. Today, a new report puts some meat on those bones:
People who suffer cardiac arrest are more likely to survive if they are in a casino or airport than if they are in a hospital, researchers said today.
….A new study shows that only a third of victims in hospitals survive — primarily because patients do not receive life-saving defibrillation within the recommended two minutes….For reasons that are not clear, black patients were less likely to receive the treatment within the two-minute window.
Bottom line: in airports and casinos, half of all cardiac arrest victims survive. In hospitals, only a third survive. So if you’re smart, you’ll have your cardiac episode in an airport, not a hospital. If you’re black, you’d be super smart to do so.
