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June 4, 2018DES MOINES, Iowa | By: INS
About 70 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in someone's home and, according to the American Heart Association, lives could be saved if more Americans knew how to perform CPR and use an automated external defibrillator.
In 2004 Butch Gibbs, of south central Iowa, suffered a heart attack in someone else's home. Luckily his wife Susie, a nurse, was able to perform CPR until an ambulance arrived. Because of his experience, Gibbs has become an ambassador and trainer for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Gibbs believes it's especially important that people living in rural areas know life-saving techniques for heart-attack victims because emergency response time could be slower, or a hospital might be 20 or more miles away.
This week -- June 1 through 7 -- is National CPR and AED Awareness Week, a time when the American Heart Association reminds us that cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and focus our attention on what we can do when someone experiences a heart attack.
The Association recommends a combination of compression and breath techniques when performing life-saving measures, but Susie Gibbs says even if you're limited to "hands-only" CPR when a victim experiences cardiac arrest, it's better to try something than nothing.
Butch Gibbs says he was galvanized to speak as often as possible about his near-death experience after learning that between 100 and 200 thousand adults and children could be saved each year if CPR were performed early enough.
In 2009, Iowa passed a law requiring that every high school student complete a CPR certification course by the end of 12th grade.
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