Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is when the heart’s normal rhythm suddenly becomes chaotic or stops beating altogether. The heart can no longer pump the blood effectively and the victim collapses, stops breathing, becomes unresponsive, and has no detectable pulse.

• 1. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the leading cause of death. An estimated 326,200 people of all ages experience SCA in the U.S each year. Nine out of ten victims die. 

• 2. An estimated 14,000 School Age Children Die from SCA globally each year. 

• 3. In the US nearly 7,000 Children will experience SCA this year according to The American Heart Association. 

• 4. SCA is a leading cause of sudden death in young people, with nearly 5,700 cases reported in children each year.  

• 5. SCA accounts for nineteen percent of sudden deaths in children between ages 1 and 13 and thirty percent between ages 14 and 21 years of age. 

• 6. Most often SCA occurs in children between ages 10-19 it is four times more likely to affect boys than girls. Sixty percent of the time SCA occurs during exercise or athletic activities. 

• 7. SCA is the leading cause of death in young athletes. In the US a young competitive athlete dies from SCA every three days. 

• 8.Two-thirds of the victims of the victims who experience SCA have underlying heart conditions. 

• 9. Fifty percent of victims of SCA have no prior symptoms, and many have no previous history of heart disease.

• 10. The number of people who die each year from SCA is roughly equivalent to the number that die from Alzheimer’s disease, assault with firearms, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, HIV, house fires, motor vehicle accidents, prostate cancer and suicides combined.