What really happens in first 5 minutes of an emergency?

By Sola Ogundipe

If the person sitting next to you collapsed right now – in your office, church, or home – and it is a cardiac arrest, they are unlikely to survive. Not because medical help doesn’t exist, but because you will waste the next five minutes not knowing what to do.

The gap between life and death is rarely the distance to the hospital; it is the distance between immediate action and paralyzed ignorance. But first – would you even recognise it as a cardiac emergency? When a person’s heart stops, they do not clutch their chest dramatically like in the films.

They collapse. They go still. They may gasp once or twice and then nothing. Most bystanders assume the person has fainted and will wake up. They will not – not without help. That misreading costs precious minutes. Good intentions do not jumpstart a stopped heart. This collective helplessness is a silent epidemic killing Nigerians daily.

According to the Nigerian Cardiac Society, 89 percent of sudden cardiac deaths in Nigeria occur outside the hospital – and fewer than 40 percent are even witnessed. This is no longer just an old person’s crisis. Nigerian cardiologists are reporting hypertension in people as young as 30. Studies show nearly one in five young Nigerian adults aged 18 to 40 is already hypertensive – most without knowing it.

A person with uncontrolled high blood pressure carries a 65 percent higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest. A silent condition. A sudden death. Getting medical help in Nigeria takes time. Whether help is coming to you or you are getting to help, that journey through traffic and distance can take far longer than survival allows.

When a person’s heart stops, the brain starves almost immediately. Every minute without action reduces the chance of survival by 10 percent. Within four minutes, brain damage begins. Who acts during those minutes?

Right now, the honest answer is nobody. This is precisely why Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training matters. CPR keeps blood moving to the brain by pressing firmly on the chest – each press a chest compression.

An AED analyses the heart’s rhythm, delivers a controlled shock, and talks you through every step. Two hands. No medical degree. That is all either requires. In Western airports, these devices are mounted on walls. In Nigerian equivalents, you find none. That is a gap we can close.

Ask yourself if your current location can answer these five questions. Who here is trained to step forward right now? What exactly do they do in the first sixty seconds? Who do they call, and in what order? Where is the nearest emergency equipment? How do you keep going until medical help is reached?

Ignorance can be solved fast. A few months ago, a CPR and AED training session was held at a church in Parkview, Lagos. The participants were not doctors – they were ushers, security, and staff. In ninety minutes, every person in that room could answer all five questions.

The response was the same from everyone. This was worth it. More people need this. Why has nobody shown us this before? One trained person in a room is the difference between a sudden death and a life saved. That person must be you.
This week: Ask an administrator at your office, school, or place of worship to show you the emergency response plan. And check your blood pressure this week. Know your numbers before they become someone else’s emergency.
Next week: Panic is not a plan – why good people freeze, and the exact triggers that break the freeze.