Fewer than 20% of people who have heart attacks in hospital survive to be discharged.

Research published today by The Lancet suggests doctors are not trying to resuscitate people for long enough. Zachary Goldberger from the University of Washington - who conducted the research - says there is a non-trivial number of patients who need more than 30 minutes of resuscitation.

Dr Jerry Nolan, who is a member of the resuscitation council and works at the Royal United Hospital in Bath - acknowledged the association between the length of resuscitation attempts and survival rates, but said there are currently no guidelines specifying precise times of how long doctors should try to resuscitate patients for.

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