Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone.  It is always a great feeling to spend the holidays with my family especially after surviving a cardiac arrest.  Best wishes!

CPR Sunday - 10/10/10

I was very excited to be invited to help the Tacoma Fire Department put on their CPR Sunday. It took place on 10/10/10 and is held once a year, Volunteer firefighters and EMTs teach CPR classes. This year was the largest day they ever had...more than 850 people learned CPR. I was able to tell my… Read More

Another restriction just got shot down...

One common "carve out" for compression-only CPR is "Use full CPR on victims of cardiac arrest secondary to respiratory arrest. A study performed at the University of Phoenix was recently published by Ashish R Panchal et al in the peer-reviewed medical journal Circulation. This study showed by… Read More

Making it real

One of the problems encountered in trying to convince people that they ought to learn CPR is that many people think it's not relevant to them.We keep looking for new ways to help people realize that cardiac arrests are realities that happen to people they know and that they might someday be the… Read More

I just heard a new excuse

I thought I had heard of all the reasons given by people for not being willing to learn CPR. But Christine Lind - SLICC's Director of Skidaway Operations - shared one with me yesterday that still has my head shaking.The person had told Christine that they didn't want to learn CPR because they didn'… Read More

Today is the day...

Today is the day on which the 2010 changes to the BLS protocols are to be announced. The rampant speculation is that the ratio of compressions to rescue breaths will change (go up) for full CPR and that the applicability of compression-only CPR will be expanded.In the midst of all this focus on the… Read More

Do the math.

Would you do something where it was well documented that one out of every eight people who do it die? Of course not. Now picture your family members, friends, and acquaintances in an auditorium. Picture what that crowd looks like - your family and close friends are closest to the podium on the… Read More

This October, Learn How to Save a Life

October is National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, dedicated to educating the public about sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and how to prevent and respond to it. 2010 is also the 50th anniversary of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), a lifesaving gift that anyone can give to a loved one--or… Read More

We're seeing more and more of this.

Runner Has Cardiac Arrest at Ten Miler EventPosted: Sep 25, 2010 7:25 PMUpdated: Sep 25, 2010 7:25 PMLynchburg, VA- Lynchburg LifeSaving Crew says one male runner had a full cardiac arrest during the race on Saturday.Lynchburg Fire department and Lynchburg Life Saving Crew members performed CPR on… Read More

What's with Commotio Cordis?

THE SHORT FORM:When someone gets hit hard in the chest in the area of the heart, cardiac arrest can result. This is one source of cardiac arrest in young athletes. Only about a quarter of these victims survive. Those that do survive are associated with immediate CPR and prompt defibrillation.… Read More