Although their campaign has concluded, if you would still like to make a donation to the Cardiac Arrest Survivors' Support project, you may always do so here.

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The Cardiac Arrest Survivors' Support project is working to improve the lives of those who suffered cardiac arrest.  Help us raise $5,000 to provide home-based CPR training kits in an attempt to minimize their depression and anxiety.

The Problem

Over 300,000 people have their hearts stop suddenly (suffer Sudden Cardiac Arrest or SCA) yearly in the United States alone. Unfortunately, less than 10% of people survive SCA, but most survivors return to their home and back to their usual activities. Of these survivors, many were previously healthy. However, due to the low likelihood of survival, many survivors do not have any social and emotional support regarding their illness available and therefore suffer anxiety or even depression.

Project Owner, Mike, suffered a cardiac arrest in April of 2010. See below for his story.

The Project

This project, Cardiac Arrest Survivors' Support, raises money to assist our research project assessing the amount of depression and anxiety that SCA survivors feel. Specifically, this campaign seeks to raise money to purchase home based CPR training kits for survivors and their families to use at home. We hope to see if providing this service, in addition to other care, affects patients' anxiety and depression 6 months and 1 year after they return home from their SCA.

Susan, far right, suffered a cardiac arrest in November of 2011. See below for her story.

How You Can Help

Please consider a donation to the Cardiac Arrest Survivors' Support campaign of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Cardiac Arrest Survival. All funds go directly to supporting SCA survivors. The first $5000 raised will help purchase over 200 CPR training kits for survivors and their families. Additional money will go to other projects including helping survivors network and attend national survivors' meetings.

Thank you for your caring and support of this important project!

25 year old Jeffrey Whitmore, right, suffered a cardiac arrest in May of 2015. See below for his story.

Our Team

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Emergency Medicine Center for Cardiac Arrest Survival researches different modalities on how to increase survival from cardiac arrest. Our team includes 6 physicians, research associates and administrative support personnel. Clinically, we care for greater than 250 patients yearly after cardiac arrest, many of whom are also involved in research projects. Using the knowledge we have gained from treating these patients and analyzing research data, we have helped increase survival to hospital discharge after SCA in the City of Pittsburgh to 16%! We have found that many SCA survivors and their families are quite motivated to advance the care of future victims of SCA. 

Survivor Stories

Susan Koeppen

• "KDKA's Susan Koeppen found life changed in just a heartbeat"

Mike Epitropoulos

• "Importance of AEDs hits home — twice"

Jeffrey Whitmore

• "Family, First Responders Speak Out After Runner Survives Coronary At Marathon"