Emergency-services experts say that in general odds of survival are reduced by 10% for every minute a person is collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest without cardiopulmonary resuscitation or defibrillation.

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Despite faster emergency squads, deployment of automated defibrillators at airports and other public places, and improvements in cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques, fewer than 10% of the 300, 000 Americans who suffer cardiac arrest each year survive long enough to leave the hospital a rate that hasn't budged much over the years.

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