Emergency Cardiac Care News Digest is an assortment of current events and news related to emergency cardiac care and resuscitation. Produced by Code One Training Solutions, Emergency Cardiac Care News Digest is published every Friday throughout the year.
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.”
– Saint Jerome
This quote is all about continuous improvement. It is about being our absolute best and reminds us to adopt the attitude of a lifelong learner, encouraging the recognition of strengths and taking steps to improve, employing them in creative ways for better results.
Birmingham’s bystander CPR rate is only 7.52%—help change that now
Here’s a sobering fact: according to the American Heart Association, more people die from heart attacks during the last week of December than at any other time of the year. And another one: while the national bystander CPR rate (meaning, CPR performed before emergency personnel arrive) is around 40%, in Birmingham, it’s only 7.52%.
As a proud local sponsor of the American Heart Association’s Nation of Lifesavers Campaign, Protective is working with the Birmingham Fire Department (BFD) to change that. We spoke with Chief Cory Moon of the BFD and a member of the American Heart Association Birmingham Metro Board of Directors to learn more.
Cadott police chief discusses emergency equipment and funding needs with Wisconsin Public Radio
Cadott’s police chief wants to place 46 automated external defibrillators in Chippewa County squad cars to help officers respond to people experiencing heart attacks. We talk with the chief about the effort and other challenges facing rural police agencies, such as funding and staffing levels.
Local Residents Rally in Rescue Efforts at Milnerton Lagoon Beach Tragedy
Local residents, hearing shouts for help, had investigated and on noticing 2 men caught in rip currents they rushed to the beach to assist.
A local male resident used an NSRI pink rescue buoy, stationed at the beach, and with use of the rescue buoy he was able to rescue both men to the beach where one man, age 25, collapsed unconscious and one man, age 30, appeared to be in a serious condition. They are both from Zimbabwe.
Award for postman who saved pensioner’s life using CPR
A postman who saved a pensioner’s life has been hailed as a CPR hero. Dan Howells was sorting through the post at the Royal Mail Stourbridge Delivery Office in November last year when Darryl Taylor, who was looking for a parcel, collapsed. The postal worker sprang into action using the life-saving skills he had learned 15 years before as a football coach. He has been given the British Heart Foundation CPR Hero award.
Bystanders and Ottawa paramedic help man in cardiac arrest on Stittsville soccer pitch
Bystanders and Ottawa paramedics helped resuscitate a man who went into cardiac arrest while playing soccer over the weekend.
The man was at the OZ Dome in Stittsville Saturday afternoon when the man collapsed. Paramedics were called at around 2:20 p.m. Bystanders performed CPR and gave the man a shock from an on-site defibrillator before paramedics arrived and took over care. They were able to resuscitate the man and he was taken to hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Making healthcare and health education accessible to surrounding and underserved local communities is what the Wellness Department at Chester County Hospital (CCH) strives for daily. This group is dedicated to bridging the gap in these communities by collaborating with local businesses and residents to identify where the most significant health needs are located and how they can lessen the burden. One community the CCH Wellness Department supports is Coatesville—and a recent initiative helps further this work.
The CCH Wellness Department recently received a $10,000 grant from the Huston Foundation. With this grant, the team decided to gift seven Coatesville churches with AED (automated external defibrillator) devices and provide training to parish leadership and to their congregations on how to safely use the devices in an emergency.
Iowa United First Aid program helps improve rural emergency response
A pilot program that’s designed to provide quicker emergency responses in rural areas is now online in the first of three Iowa counties. Cass County, in southwest Iowa, is the first to launch the Iowa United First Aid program.
Erik Johnson, an AmeriCorps volunteer and paramedic, is leading the high-tech initiative, where volunteers who are closer than an ambulance will be contacted through an app and dispatched, carrying a “go bag” that includes an automatic external defibrillator or AED. “Including myself, we have 13 volunteers,” Johnson says. “I have 25 AEDs to equip, I’m hoping, 20 volunteers that will be a bridge between the initial 911 call and when the EMS arrives.”
Those volunteers will cover sections of Cass County’s 565-square miles, including towns like Atlantic, Anita, Wiota, Massena, Griswold, Lewis and Marne. Ideally, they’ll be able to help stabilize patients until an ambulance arrives. Johnson explains what’s included in their go-bags. The bags contain a state-purchased AED, a “stop the bleed” kit, a first aid kit, a pocket mask, a box of gloves, and Narcan, an emergency opiod overdose treatment drug. Each volunteer will also receive a vest that identifies them as a trained responder.
EMT Erika Musante spent 45 minutes providing roadside CPR during an off-duty trip in the mountains. She stresses the importance of CPR training. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth. It was a beautiful summer day in July. John Horan and his wife, Andrea, had spent the weekend with friends at their family’s ranch in Heeney, between Kremmling and Silverthorne, Colorado. That Sunday morning, they were driving to Denver. Andrea turned onto Colorado Highway 9 and suddenly slumped over the steering wheel.
With Andrea unresponsive, John took hold of the steering wheel and put the vehicle in neutral. He steered them to the shoulder of the road, coasted to a stop and put the vehicle in park. John screamed at Andrea. But there was no response.
UNR professor develops interactive CPR module to help student athletes
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Doctor Lorrel Toft is an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada Reno and Cardiologist. Her work up until this point has reached hundreds of thousands of students and is going to continue to grow.
Dr. Toft has recently been awarded 1.48 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health to develop interactive CPR training modules for high school students and especially student athletes.
“We are using the reality and drama of film to immerse learners in a realistic situation. We’re trying to not just teach the mechanics of CPR—where do you push; how hard do you push—we’re also trying to teach the emotions you may encounter if you were to see a teammate or a loved one collapse. When we’re focused specifically on the athlete, part of this project, we’re really focused on a new message for athletes,” Dr. Toft said.
That message is that the closest person to someone who is in cardiac arrest is the best person to administer CPR. Recent high-profile professional athletes suffering cardiac arrest on the field have drawn attention to the need for effective training. Cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in high school athletes, standing at one in 50 thousand to 80 thousand students each year.
Toft’s goal in this project is to not only save lives but break the barriers in disparities in CPR being accessible or even taught.
Northview High Students Receive Required CPR Training
Nemours Children’s Health Pensacola continued their work this week towards the goal to provide hands-on CPR training to every eleventh grade student in the Escambia County Public School District. These trainings, held in partnership with the American Heart Association, are led by Nemours Children’s Health pediatric specialists as a way to ensure that every high school in the Escambia County Public School District is able to meet the Florida statute that requires students in 9th and 11th grade to participate in basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training.
By the end of the school year, more than 2,000 students across seven Escambia County high schools will have received training on how to effectively administer CPR, as well as instruction on how to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
PulsePoint App helps neighbors to save lives in emergencies
MILTON, Ga. — Milton and Alpharetta in north Fulton County have begun using “PulsePoint” during 911 medical emergency calls, a service that uses smartphone technology to post alerts on a free app, in order to reach CPR-trained volunteers who are near the emergencies. Volunteers can then reach heart attack victims quicker.
“We want as many people as possible to download the app and to be responders here within the city limits,” Haskins said. “For every minute that there’s no CPR on a person, their chance of surviving actually drops by around ten percent each minute.”
Introducing Heartsight, a grassroots initiative created by people impacted by cardiac arrest
Heartsight is a grassroots initiative created by people impacted by cardiac arrest. It orients and empowers anyone who has been affected by this life-altering event.
Heartsight connects to trusted resources based on clinical research and the lived experiences of people like you. They are here to help.
