The subtle cardiac death is the third major cause of death in industrialized nations, overcoming cancer and yet other cardiovascular diseases. In Europe and United States, at least 7000.000 people die of subtle cardiac arrest after frustrated attempts of cardiopulmonary resurrection (CPR) outside of a hospital. In a passage through Brazil, Bernd Böttiger, head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intense Surgical Care of the University of Cologne (Germany), has shown numbers on how a simple gesture – which requires only the use of two hands – have been saving thousands of lives around the world.

The lecture “The World Restarts a Heart and Kids Save Lives Campaigns”, given on the amphitheater of the Department of Pathology of FMUSP on April 29th, has shown the evolution of the worldwide CPR campaign, which has as a main focus the training of children and adolescents to act in emergency situations. The campaign is conducted by entities such as the European Resuscitation Council, of which Böttiger has been president since 2008.

“In Germany alone, more than seven thousand lives have been being saved per year, since the program was implanted in schools, in 2010”, says Böttiger. The scientist showed a video simulating how people, even the ones who could be more prepared, end up undermined and reactionless in a real emergency. It also showed touching cases, such as how the action of the student Kea, of 16 years old, saved the life of Nic, of 12 years old, in a situation during a sports game at school.

The brain resists up to five minutes after a cardiac arrest and the proper intervention in initial moments is crucial. It makes all the difference to save a life or even to prevent sequels that can occur after the episode, presented Böttiger.

The Kids Save Lives Brasil, coordinated by Professor Naomi Kondo Nakagawa, of the Department of Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy of FMUSP, and by professor Maria José Carvalho Cramona, of the Anesthesiology Division of the Department of Surgery of FMUSP, among other teachers. The project already acted in several schools of the public network as a university extension project, training young people to act in cases of cardiac and cardiorespiratory arrest. In 2019, the project gained the Graduation classes and became an optative discipline for the USP students.

To enhance the international CPR campaign, Professor Naomi has also been acting for the approval of the Law Project 310/2019, which predicts the creation of the Kids Save Lives Week – Kids Save Lives Brasil. The idea is to capacitate graduation students to spread the resurrection technique in emergency cardiopulmonary situations, according to Naomi.