Conference will focus on strategy to cut sudden adult deaths

THE potential exists to reduce the number of sudden adult deaths in Ireland every year by around 1,800, a cardiologist insisted yesterday.

“That’s four times the total number of people who die on Irish roads every year,” said Dr Joseph Galvin, a consultant cardiologist at Dublin’s Mater Hospital.

The current survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest in Ireland is just 1%, compared to a 30% survival rate in US cities where action has been taken to save lives.