In some cases in this study, CPR @ home worked “just as well”
as an AED @ home for a particular group of individuals. It needs
to be qualified, however, that it is only one study and further research
needs to be demonstrated.

On the other hand, I can extrapolate an ideal from this study.
Can you imagine what good CPR and proper AED can do in the home
and the community altogether for any SCA victim?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/
04/01/moh.homedefibrillators.ap/index.html

AHA HO-CPR Consumer Fact Sheet

AHA SMSI BLS Roster

Below is information relating to the newly released statement
by the American Heart Association regarding Hands-Only CPR
on March 31, 2008.

Please let me know if you have further questions.
Have a great day!

Kathy Copelin
American Heart Association
kathy.copelin@heart.org

Subject: Recent ECC Announcement

Good Morning! Yesterday, National released a statement clarifying
the 2005 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC, which recommend that lay
persons - or bystanders - should perform Hands-Only CPR if they are
unable or unwilling to provide rescue breaths. Yesterday, an advisory
statement was published in the online version of the journal Circulation
(http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.189380).

Hands-Only CPR is CPR without mouth-to-mouth breaths. It is
recommended for use by people who see an adult suddenly collapse
in the “out-of-hospital” setting. It consists of two steps: call 911
(or send someone to do that); and begin providing high-quality chest
compressions by pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest
with minimal interruptions.

Hands-Only CPR is not appropriate for unresponsive infants
and children, adult victims who are found already unconscious
and not breathing normally, and victims of drowning or other
respiratory causes of arrest.

ECC has developed an Internet micro-site at

www.americanheart.org/handsonlycpr

to provide information to consumers. This afternoon, there will be
information at the top of the ECC public Web site about Hands-Only
CPR, which will include a link to the consumer micro-site.
All information for the ECC Training Network has been posted
to the password-protected Instructor Network.

www.ahainstructornetwork.org

If you receive calls from instructors, please advise them to view the
above websites, as well as contact the training center they are aligned
with in order to receive more information. If you have any questions,
please let me know! Thank you!

Katie Connolly
American Heart Association
katie.connolly@heart.org

I have been inundated with news clips and pertinent questions via email
and in class regarding this “new” concept of Hands-Only CPR (HO-CPR).

First of all, I have been waiting to respond to all of the posts about this
development because 1) I have been VERY busy but 2) I wanted to also
wait to get a better idea of everything that has been reported from official
and unoffficial sources before I responded to you all. =)

Secondly, this idea of just doing chest compressions isn’t all that new.
HO-CPR has been recommended for many years now by the American
Heart Association for those who did not have the confidence or
competence in providing our current standard of care. In fact, quite
a few EMS systems and dispatchers have been using this protocol for
years for 911 callers who didn’t know CPR well or @ all.
It HAS helped and worked.

In other words, it has been recommended for those would-be rescuers
that did not want to provide rescue breathing OR did not have a good
barrier device (unlike SMSI students!) OR did not know or remember
how to do CPR well.

Finally, my suspicion is that the AHA wanted to also increase the
awareness of this idea to the general public to (obviously and hopefully)
increase the national survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)
for would-be rescuers who were trained in CPR or not.

Here is a list of sites colleague have sent to me regarding this matter.
Thank you very much to Eric Saleh with Navistar, Thomas Van Howe, Jr
with McCrone Associates and Don Varisco with Tellabs for submitting
these websites to me.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23884566

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/31/moh.cpr/index.html

Hey All,

Our new SearcyBlog is up and runnning thanx to our wonderful web guru!
She has added the first two posts and I have provided the next two.
Please visit this area regularly for the latest news and information!

And, of course, please contribute as you see fit! =)

Please share this information to anyone and everyone in areas of rural
Illinois with whom you think could benefit from this wonderful possibility.
See below for details about the annual IRHA AED grant opportunity!
 

In a message dated 3/5/2008 16:31:12 Central Daylight Time,
kathy.copelin@heart.org writes:

> Hello Everyone,
> Below is an announcement from the Illinois Rural Health Association
> regarding AED grants.  Have a great day!
> Kathy Copelin
> American Heart Association
> 
> IRHA Announces AED Grant Opportunity
> 
> IRHA once again has grant funds available for AED’s for our rural
> partners in EMS, Schools, Fire Protection & Law Enforcement.
> Please visit the IRHA website at www.ilruralhealth.org and download
> a copy of the application and eligibility criteria.  Applications must
> be postmarked by April 1st 2008.  Visit our website today
> and share this AED Grant Opportunity with your rural colleagues.
> Alice M. Foss
> IL Rural Health Association
>

Just today, I learned of this audio download of a speaker’s presentation
describing her SCA (sudden cardiac arrest) event in 2002. Most certainly,
this is coming from a woman who is not in the medical field whatsoever
(which makes her account even more intriguing).

However, as my fine colleague states who sent this to me she “is an
excellent speaker and very funny, as well as obviously a very religious
person.” She is evidently speaking @ a Christian conference but provides
“an amazing ‘patient perspective’ to SCA but was also quite informative
and accurate regarding the events that (can) lead up to v-fib actually.”

The speaker is Pamela Christian who is a television host, a devout
Christian and well-known author in CA. The colleague who sent this
to me is Frank Poliafico, RN, who is the executive director of the
Initial Life Support Foundation in PA. Thank you Frank for sending it!

By the way, keeping fighting the good fight! =)

http://oneplace.com/common/download.asp?cid=1049336&rn=freedownload-20080310

How about this article below from the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Delayed Time to Defibrillation after In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest?”

It explains in short that you are often safer in a casino or an airport than a hospital if you suffer a SCA (sudden cardiac arrest). How’s that for a “shocker?” Quite frankly, I am not surprised. The link is below.

Since June 1999, the Chicago Airport System (O’Hare and Midway) placed an AED for every minute’s worth of walking distance AND trained thousands of their employees in CPR/AED. In that first year alone, they yielded an 80% survival rate. THAT is impressive.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/358/1/9