American Heart Association of Greater Pittsburgh hosts mass CPR training

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey had never learned how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, known as CPR, an emergency procedure to maintain the blood flow to vital organs and to restore normal heart function after sudden cardiac arrest.

When he was asked by the American Heart Association of Greater Pittsburgh to join 99 other people, to be part of a mass hands-only CPR event, he immediately accepted the invitation.

He said he wanted to do something to help.

“Don’t be ashamed if you don’t know how to do CPR; be ashamed if you don’t want to learn it,” Gainey said to the other participants, volunteers and Heart Association employees at Two Gateway Center in Downtown Pittsburgh on Feb. 2. The event was held on the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women’s annual National Wear Red Day, which raises awareness for women’s heart health.

The Heart Association “goes red” the first Friday in February, which is also American Heart Month.

Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association. It kills more women than all forms of cancers combined.

The idea to have 100 people learn or take a refresher CPR course was a way to recognize the American Heart Association’s 100th anniversary.

The hands-only course did not involve rescue breaths, where a person breaths into another person’s mouth.

“I was nervous,” Gainey said. “Often people don’t know about this, especially those in underserved neighborhoods. They don’t always have the resources for where they can learn what to do if someone goes into cardiac arrest. We hope this event reaches the masses, and that we can heal one another, because it’s about healing one another, about looking out for one another.”

Performing CPR can definitely be life-saving, said Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, associate professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine and associate vice chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is also the EMS Medical Director (Medical Command Physician MD- 22) at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and was leading the training.

According to the American Heart Association, each year more than 350,000 EMS-assessed cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. outside of a hospital. Cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs.

Survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from someone nearby.

According to the American Heart Association, about 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, especially if performed immediately, can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival.

Owusu-Ansah said the first step is to ensure you and the person you are helping are safe. Don’t try and do CPR in the middle of a street, she said.

Immediately call 911 and put the phone on speaker, so your hands are free, and begin to administer CPR. It often takes minutes before emergency medical personnel arrive and every minute counts, she said.

Cardiac arrest is different than a heart attack, which is when blood flow to the heart is blocked. Sudden cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating.

Wearing a bright red American Heart Association shirt, the Mayor and his wife, Michelle, listened to the words of Owusu-Ansah and then began the training.

One piece of advice is to replay a song in your head while performing hands-only CPR. Tunes include “Staying Alive,” by the Bee Gees, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC, “Cuff It” by Beyonce and “Baby Shark.”

That can help keep your movements in rhythm.

People feel more confident performing hands-only CPR and are more likely to remember the correct rate when trained to the beat of a familiar song, according to the American Heart Association. When performing CPR, you should push on the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute, which corresponds to the beat of these songs.

Compressions need to be done with some pressure, of which there is a possibility of breaking a rib or puncturing a lung.

“We can fix (a broken rib or punctured lung),” Owusu-Ansah said. “We can’t fix a dead brain.”

Some people are hesitant about performing CPR.

They might not know the technique. There might be fear that if the person dies they will be responsible. According to the American Heart Association, the Good Samaritan Law protects people who perform CPR during cardiac arrest.

There is also concern that if the person is a woman, there is fear of touching her breasts. There is data to support that women are less likely to receive CPR from a bystander mainly because people are afraid to touch a woman.

Six out of 10 women who suffer a cardiac arrest in public die because people passing by are often uncomfortable touching them, according to the American Heart Association.

Performing CPR is the same on a man as a woman, Roland Castro-Boulware, community impact director for the American Heart Association of Greater Pittsburgh, said after the event.

Two at a time were instructed by local health professionals on how to do CPR on a mannequin.

It might feel awkward at first, Owusu-Ansah said, and that is why education is key.

“We have to change the culture,” Owusu-Ansah said. “You can save a life. And you are not alone. You will have 911 on the line.”

Events like the mass hands-only CPR will help to get people more comfortable with doing it, Owusu-Ansah said. Even if they don’t think they are doing it correctly, something is better than nothing, she said.

“Celebrating 100 years means the work we are doing is meaningful,” Castro-Boulware said. “But there is still a lot more to be done.”

Dr. Leeanna McKibben, chief of staff and vice-chancellor of Health Sciences Administration at the University of Pittsburgh, and board chairperson for the American Heart Association Greater Pittsburgh, said there is no time like the present to highlight CPR training. She said even if you have had training, taking a refresher course is always good.

“There are life-saving benefits to doing this,” McKibben said. “Imagine yourself in this situation. You would want someone to help you. A little bit of practice goes a long way to allay some of those fears. If we get the general public to learn this we will increase the ability to save lives.”

Someone who knows that first hand is Susan Koeppen, anchor of the 4 p.m. news on WPXI who attended the event.

In 2011, she went for a 3-mile run on a Sunday morning.

She collapsed on the sidewalk. She suffered sudden cardiac arrest. Friends she was running with waved down help. Two medical students stopped and gave her CPR.

Firefighters arrived in minutes and shocked her heart with an automated external defibrillator (AED). It is a portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart when it detects an abnormal rhythm and changes the rhythm back to normal.

Koeppen often shares her story.

“It’s so important to do something,” Koeppen said. “If you do nothing, the person is going to die. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Bystander CPR can double, even triple a person’s chance of survival. A bystander gave me CPR when I collapsed, and years later I gave CPR to a man in cardiac arrest. We are both alive today. CPR works. You can save a life with your own two hands.”

Owusu-Ansah agrees.

“This could be your mom or grandmother or sister or aunt or daughter,” said Owusu-Ansah. “Everybody’s life is worth saving.”