The New CPR:
Health Story

Aired on Lifetime Television
Sunday, February 10 and March 30, 2008
Show 506

When somebody drops to the ground after having a heart attack, what do you do?  For a long time, we've been taught the traditional CPR method of combining chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The mouth-to-mouth part makes some hesitant and, as University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center Director of Cardiac Catheterization Dr. Karl Kern will tell you, it can actually be unnecessary. He notes how blood flow from chest compressions can provide the oxygen blood cells need for a longer time than previously thought, making mouth-to-mouth unnecessary. Dr. Kern promotes this chest compression-only method as "the new CPR" – also called CCR, which stands for "continuous chest compressions."  It worked for Brian Duffield, a former lifeguard whose own life was saved by CCR.  Paramedics in Tucson know CCR works: survival rates for cardiac patients have tripled since they started using it.