Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The sudden stoppage of a young person's heart is uncommon; yet is very upsetting for the victim's family, friends, and community. In the majority of cases, the heart stops pumping when it goes into a dangerous rhythm and in almost all cases, the young people die. Thus it's really important to try and figure out what medical causes (risk factors) are associated with the sudden stoppage of the heart (cardiac arrest). We know that some factors like having your cardiac arrest seen by someone else can help you survive better but whether or not your sex (i.e. male or female) can affect your chances of surviving a cardiac arrest is not well understood. We want to try and understand why young men and women's hearts suddenly stop functioning, in order to see what can be done to prevent these events from happening in the first place.