And Another Save

By JON ERICSON, jonathan.ericson@wcfcourier.com | Posted: Friday, September 16, 2011 11:05 am | CEDAR FALLS, Iowa ---- A race for one high school athlete turned into a fight for life. A 17-year-old Decorah cross country runner collapsed Thursday evening while running in the Rich Engel Cross Country Classic at Birdsall Park in Cedar Falls. A spectator at the event, Dr. Greg Hoekstra, began doing CPR on him until a Cedar Falls police officer Sam Shafer and reserve officer Bob Wright arrived on the scene. The officers had an automated external defibrillator and administered the shock to jump start the young man's heart. The athlete was taken to Sartori Hospital. Sartori personnel called the on-scene response a "textbook save" and noted that CPR alone would most likely not have saved the student's life. Cedar Falls Police have been carrying the defibrillators in each squad car for about eight years. Each officer is re-certified to use the devices each year. "Frequently we're on the scene before ambulances and paramedics, so you have to do what you can," said Police Chief Jeff Olson. "We're just thrilled when we can do something like this to help." The athlete's name has not been released. Read More: runner collapses

It's happening more and more often...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A Notre Dame fan who had a heart attack during last weekend's game at Michigan survived to watch the final touchdowns from a hospital bed, the school said Thursday. Leo Staudacher's heart stopped during the second quarter of Saturday night's game at Michigan Stadium, the school said. The 69-year-old Bay City man survived thanks in part to one bystander who performed CPR and others who called for a medical team who used an automated electric defibrillator on site. "My family watched while they shocked me with the paddles," Staudacher, who was visiting Ann Arbor with his sons ages 45, 48 and 50, said in a statement released by the school. "But it was the fans and their prompt CPR that saved my life."

Isn't it becoming obvious?

Consider a few facts:

• The Phoenix airport has a seventy-five percent survival rate for witnessed cardiac arrests. Last time I checked, Chicago's O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield were around sixty percent. The CARES database reflects a twenty-seven percent average for all airports in participating communities.
• Twenty-seven percent of the people who had a sudden cardiac arrest in a doctor's office survived...the same percentage as for the average airport.
• Sixty-six percent of all sudden cardiac arrests happen in the home. Fifteen percent of the survivors in the Survivor Network had their arrests at home.

We know what it takes to make survivors out of sudden cardiac arrest victims:

• Call for help (911)
• Perform CPR immediately and without interruption
• Defibrillate promptly
• Prompt arrival of ALS Ambulance
• Definitive care at the hospital

PEOPLE WHO SURVIVE A CARDIAC ARREST GET IMMEDIATE CPR AND PROMPT DEFIBRILLATION. IT'S NOT A GUARANTEE, BUT WITHOUT THOSE TWO ELEMENTS, YOU ARE TOAST!

• MAKE SURE THAT ALL THOSE AROUND YOU KNOW BYSTANDER CPR.
• MAKE SURE THAT AN AED IS NO MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES AWAY, WHEREVER YOU ARE.

Please!