Last week Annmargreth and I were invited to a resuscitation symposium in Copenhagen. Organizers were the companies Medidyne and Zoll and the theme was Improving resuscitation outcomes together.

It was an interesting day with actors and participants from our Nordic countries and guest speakers from the US.

Annmargreth and I told our story about my cardiac arrest five years ago, the week in hospital in Copenhagen, first time at home, rehabilitation and what we have learned.

You can find our slides here

Our partner Johan Israelsson from Region Kalmar County and Linneuniversitetet was also invited to participate with the title Health related Quality of life after cardiac arrest and his participation was appreciated.

We also listened to two interesting talks about debriefing, Hot debriefing and performance data and Data Driven, Performance Focused Debriefing.

We noted during the day that although Sweden is doing very well in the area of ​​cardiac arrest, there is much to learn from others, not least Denmark.
In Sweden, 10% of all those who have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive, in Denmark the survival rate is 15%. Our assessment is that there is a completely different understanding in Denmark that everyone needs to know CPR. There are also more AEDs and they are more often available 24/7. Another example is that in Denmark there is a requirement to know CPR when you get your driver’s license.

Thanks a lot to Medidyne and ZOLL Medical for inviting us to this well-arranged day! There is certainly still a lot to do, to improve resuscitation outcomes together.