Across all in-hospital CPR patients, the published data show about 6 of 100 are alive, at home, and not readmitted at one year. That's the population average. But the number varies substantially by patient profile. This section shows the spread — and where the data has real limits.
The 6 of 100 figure above is a single number describing very different patients. Some are much higher. Some are much lower.
The next steps walk through how the number changes by patient profile.
When the patient is younger or generally healthy, the cardiac arrest is witnessed by medical staff, and the initial rhythm is shockable (ventricular fibrillation or pulseless VT), survival to discharge can reach 40–50%.
In this best-case scenario, about 25 of 100 return to a life close to what they had before.
For patients aged 65 or older with no significant chronic disease, about 17 of 100 survive to leave the hospital, and about 7 of 100 achieve a good outcome at one year.
For patients with advanced COPD, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, or cirrhosis, about 12 of 100 survive to discharge — but only about 2 of 100 are alive, at home, and not readmitted at one year.
The survival number falls less than the good-outcome number, because many survivors are discharged to nursing facilities rather than home.
For patients with metastatic cancer, advanced dementia, or significant frailty (Clinical Frailty Scale ≥6 — a 9-point scale where 6 indicates moderate frailty and dependence for many activities), survival to discharge falls to roughly 3–8%.
Good outcome at one year is 1 of 100 or fewer. Some single-center studies of frail patients found no survivors at all.
Cardiac arrest in a nursing home has different characteristics: longer time to defibrillation, lower rate of shockable rhythms, often unwitnessed. Survival to discharge is approximately 2 of 100.
Among the few who do survive, most return to their previous functional status. That baseline, however, is often already significantly impaired.
These figures are population averages with wide confidence intervals. Most come from voluntary registries (Get With The Guidelines–Resuscitation covers about 600 of 6,100 US hospitals), and definitions of "good outcome" vary across studies.
Validated bedside tools exist — the Clinical Frailty Scale is the most widely used, plus GO-FAR and CASPRI. They have real limits: GO-FAR's C-statistic of 0.78 means roughly 1 in 5 patients is misclassified, the risk categories are wide, and most clinicians don't compute them at the bedside.
The most reliable approach is asking your medical team to talk through your specific situation directly.
Your number depends on age, conditions, and circumstances. The most useful question for your medical team is: for someone with my situation specifically, what are the realistic outcomes?