A New PRESTAN Product Can Save Women's Lives

When someone suffers from sudden cardiac arrest and needs CPR, every second is crucial. Resuscitating a person suffering from cardiac arrest within 5 minutes can double or triple their chances of survival. Unfortunately, people often hesitate to perform CPR on women due to fears and misconceptions. This means that women have a lower chance of survival when suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. The new PRESTAN Female Accessory is designed to represent the female anatomy and aims to improve cardiac survival rates in women. Only 10 percent of people survive sudden cardiac arrests, mostly because they don’t receive CPR in time. Men are 45 percent more likely to receive CPR while women receive CPR 39 percent of the time. Men had a 23 percent higher survival rate compared to women according to data gathered by the American Heart Association.

One of the main reasons bystanders are reluctant to perform CPR on women is the fear of being accused of sexual assault or inappropriate touching. Another reason women might not receive CPR is the fear of harming the victim. “The probability of injury from bystander CPR is really, really low” according to Dr. Ashish Panchal, a professor of emergency medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. There is also the misconception that women don’t have cardiac arrests (heart disease is the leading killer of women in the United States) and some bystanders may think the woman was being overdramatic.

Students have been training using flat-chested manikins for years, so it makes sense that people don’t know where to appropriately place their hands or if they should expose a woman’s chest. With the new PRESTAN female accessory, instructors can train students to be more confident and eliminate gender bias in CPR training. This gives instructors a way to make students more comfortable and prepare them for lifesaving moments, increasing survival rates in women.

The PRESTAN female accessory is designed to securely attach to PRESTAN Professional Adult, Adult Series 2000, and Ultralite CPR training manikins to mimic the female anatomy and is available in dark and medium skin tones. Each manikin offers built-in, real-time feedback devices to provide reassurance that your compressions are being delivered effectively. The female accessory can also be paired with the CPR training shirts to give a full, real-life scenario training experience.

Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time without warning. Every second counts, so being prepared for these moments can mean life or death for the victim. Bystander CPR is something that anyone can learn and can be taught in as little as 5 minutes. Once you learn, practicing every six months to a year with a manikin can help you build the confidence you need to act quickly in an emergency situation.

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