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Cardiac arrest
Family CPR helps — but strangers' CPR helps more
Association Between Family Member Bystander CPR and Survival for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-10 · Added 8 October 2026
US CARES registry cohort of 824,960 OHCAs comparing family-member vs non-family bystander CPR — both beat no bystander CPR, but bystanders outside the family achieved notably higher survival.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective registry cohort (multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression)
- Participants
- 824,960 non-traumatic OHCAs, 2013-2024
- Main finding
- Survival to discharge was 9.6% with family-member bystander CPR (aOR 1.31 vs none) and 17.3% with non-family bystander CPR (aOR 1.58 vs none); non-family CPR beat family CPR directly (aOR 1.21), with the same pattern for favourable neurological survival
- Caveat
- Observational registry — who witnesses the arrest and who steps in is entangled with arrest circumstances, so the family/non-family gap may be partly confounded
- Bottom line
- Supports current practice
Why it matters in Australia (High relevance). Most arrests happen at home in front of family, so the gap between who is present and who does effective CPR is a community training problem every Australian service shares.
Learning goal
Understand why arrests witnessed by family receive bystander CPR less effectively and how community systems can close that gap.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 8 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 8 October 2026
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