We aimed to describe characteristics associated with rescue from drowning as reported by the Swedish Fire and Rescue Services (SFARS) and their association with survival from the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) registry.
This retrospective study is based on the OHCA registry and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (SCCA) registry. All emergency calls (1996-2010) where the SFARS were dispatched were included (n=7175). For analysis of survival, OHCAs that matched events from the SCCA registry were included (n=250).
Calls to lakes and ponds were predominant (35% of all calls reported). Rescues were more likely in cold water,