Previous studies of patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation have reported survival rates after hospital discharge ranging from 3 to 33 percent in a variety of settings . In communities without access to early defibrillation, mortality rates exceed 90 to 95 percent.
Read moreWhat happens during ventricular fibrillation?
An arrhythmia that starts in your ventricle is called ventricular fibrillation. This occurs when the electrical signals that tell your heart muscle to pump cause your ventricles to quiver (fibrillate) instead . The quivering means that your heart is not pumping blood out to your body.
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