New CPR guidelines released today

CEDAR RAPIDS - Samuel Gordon understands the importance of CPR.

The Coe College freshman owes his life to a group of students who resuscitated Gordon after he collapsed during a workout.

“The CPR was keeping the blood pumping to my body, making sure I didn't go brain-dead,” said Gordon, 18, of Highlands Ranch, Colo. “Basically, CPR was keeping me alive.”

With new guidelines issued today by the American Heart Association - the first major change in 40 years to the way CPR is performed - experts expect to hear more success stories like Gordon's.

“I hope this is really going to make a difference for people,” said Dr. Joshua Pruitt, medical director for LifeGuard Air Ambulance at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. “Now, it's very simple.”

The new guidelines recommend chest compressions as the first step to revive victims of sudden cardiac arrest.

For at least 40 years, the group has emphasized the ABC's of cardiopulmonary resuscitation: airway, breathing, compressions. Now the training calls for “CAB,” or compressions, airway, breathing.

Research shows starting CPR with opening the airway delays chest compressions by a critical 30 seconds.

Dr. Michael Sayre,

co-author of the guidelines, noted that starting CPR with compressions allows blood to pump to the victim's brain and heart sooner.

Previously, someone performing CPR would look, listen and feel for normal breathing, and then open a victim's airway by tilting their head back, pinching the nose and breathing into the victim's mouth.

The new guidelines call for first pushing hard and fast on the center of the chest 30 times, at a rate of at least 100 compressions per minute.

The guidelines apply to adult and child victims.

Even with no pulse, someone who collapses would have oxygen in the lungs and blood for a few minutes, Pruitt said.

“If you start compressions immediately, they're going to get that oxygenated blood to their tissues,” he said. “That's the purpose of CPR.”

Pruitt said fast compressions are also important.

People with no training in CPR should perform only chest compressions and leave the breathing to trained rescuers.

Studies show less than one-third of cardiac-arrest victims receive bystander CPR and less than 8 percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive.

Effective bystander CPR can double or triple a victim's chance of survival.

Coe sophomore Emily Kleinmeyer, 19, of Iowa City, said her lifeguard training kicked in when she and other soccer team members heard a bystander call for help in late August at Coe's outdoor track.

Gordon, a member of Coe's tennis team, was unaccustomed to Iowa's humidity and collapsed during an individual workout.

Kleinmeyer performed chest compressions, while Jordan Oberbreckling, a student trainer, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Soccer teammates Kaitlin Mitchell and Courtney Rogers helped by moving Gordon from under the bleachers and calling 911.

“I'm absolutely indebted to the soccer girls,” said Gordon, who has since recovered. “I'm thankful they knew what to do in that situation.”