We've all seen that medical show. Something goes wrong and suddenly the patient isn't breathing any more or their heart isn't beating or both. The doctor springs into action and begins to administer CPR. After a few tense moments, the patient starts breathing again. Their heart returns to a normal rhythm. Unfortunately, real life isn't quite as simple.
CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If done right, CPR can break the patient's ribs, but may save their life. Given what we've seen on TV, we have a fairly skewed view of the success rate of this procedure though. According to a study, 75% of TV patients who have CPR performed on them survive and 67% of them go home.
However, in real life, in a 2010 study of over 95,000 patients, only 8% of those who received CPR lived for more than a month. Of those patients, only about 3% could live a normal life. Turns out that, just like about everything else we see on TV, we can't always trust how CPR is portrayed.