Abstract 147: Volunteer Responders Often Provide Emotional Support To Relatives Of Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients Even After Arrival Of The Emergency Medical Services

Abstract

Introduction: Volunteer responders (VR) are dispatched to OHCA to fetch an AED and provide CPR. However, often more than one volunteer responder arrives, allowing additional responders to handle tasks beyond resuscitative efforts. We aimed to assess which tasks dispatched VR performed during resuscitation attempts and the proportion of VR providing emotional support to patient relatives. Method and Results: This was an observational study with prospectively collected data from Denmark's national volunteer responder cohort between April 2020 and May 2022. We included 18,489 VR who accepted an alarm and arrived at a presumed cardiac arrest. All VR who received an alarm received a survey 90 minutes after, which included questions regarding their handling of tasks (response rate 86.1%). Of 18,489 volunteers, 6,612 (35.8%) arrived before EMS. Among all VR who arrived at the cardiac arrest scene, 3,424 (18.5%) performed CPR, 1,851 (10.0%) attached an AED, and 3,447 (18.6%) provided support for relatives. In univariate logistic regression models, VR provision of CPR was significantly associated with being healthcare educated (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.61-1.93), police or firefighter (OR: 3.28, 95% CI: 2.96-3.64). Further, odds for CPR provision increased with recent CPR course (OR: 2.48, 95% CI: 2.09-2.93). VR provision of CPR was significantly associated with an increasing number of VR arriving before EMS. Odds for the provision of CPR were doubled in cases where three or more VR arrived before EMS (OR:6.06, 95% CI: 5.29-6.94) compared to cases where one VR arrived (OR: 3.15, 95% CI: 2.70-3.69). When VR arrived after EMS, 14.9 % provided support for relatives (Fig 1). Conclusion: Volunteer responders’ engagement in OHCA is associated with educational background and the number of volunteers arriving before EMS. Provision of support for relatives is the most frequently handled task, even at arrival after the EMS.