Quick Bystander CPR Within Five Minutes Nearly Doubles Pediatric Cardiac Arrest Survival

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation performed within five minutes of a child's heart stopping nearly doubled their chances of survival, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2025. The study analyzed data for more than 10,000 children from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, or CARES, a U.S. registry that collects information about cardiac arrests occurring outside of hospitals and now includes data on more than 175 million people. Researchers found the time window to initiate successful CPR in children may be half that of the window for adults—5 minutes versus 10 minutes, respectively.

Among the 10,991 children who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, about half received bystander CPR. The median time to receive lay rescuer CPR was three minutes. Overall, more than 15% of the children survived to hospital discharge, and nearly 13% had favorable brain function at discharge, with better outcomes observed when lay rescuer CPR was initiated within 5 minutes of cardiac arrest. For children who received lay rescuer CPR compared to those who did not, the analysis found the odds of survival increased 91% when started within one minute after cardiac arrest, 98% when initiated in two to three minutes, and 37% when performed in four to five minutes after cardiac arrest.

However, the survival odds decreased 24% when a lay rescuer initiated CPR in six to seven minutes, 33% when performed in eight to nine minutes, and 41% when started in 10 minutes or more after the cardiac arrest. A similar pattern emerged between the time to lay rescuer CPR and favorable brain survival. Lead study author Mohammad Abdel Jawad, M.D., M.S., a research fellow of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, noted that while they were not surprised that CPR initiated within five minutes improved survival odds in children, they were struck by how quickly the benefit dropped off after five minutes.

These findings highlight the urgent need to teach and encourage more people—parents, family members, teachers, coaches and community members—to learn CPR and feel confident using it right away. The research supports the American Heart Association's Nation of Lifesavers movement, which has a goal of doubling cardiac arrest survival rates by 2030. According to American Heart Association data, 9 out of every 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die, in part because they do not receive immediate CPR more than half of the time. Future research could focus on how to shorten time to CPR even more, such as improved dispatcher instructions or broader implementation of CPR training in schools and during well-child visits.