Stayin' Alive: Disco CPR
By: Deborah Ferguson, NBC
Updated: December 22, 2011
Heart-related deaths increase during the holidays, so now is the time to learn how to do CPR if you don't already. As Deborah Ferguson reports, there is a simple and easy way to remember what to do in a panicky situation.
"You want to place your hands between the nipple line. And so it will be right there," says nurse Michelle Sension. "You also want to give the chest some time to inflate back before your push again."
Nurse Sension makes CPR look simple. And it is.
No mouth-to-mouth needed. Just steady compressions to the chest; 100 per minute done to the tune of a famous disco song.
"You know at the time of an emergency you're going to be really nervous and all the adrenaline is running through your body but if you just sing the 'Stayin Alive' song by the Bee Gees and try to time your compressions with it, you'll save a life," Nurse Sension says.
"It's not that you panic, but it's like, 'Oh, what's going on and you just do it,'" recalls Linda Gonzalez, who had to perform CPR on her husband.
Gonzalez put the little CPR knowledge she had to the test back in May when her husband frank got overheated while mowing, and she could tell something was wrong.
"She wouldn't let me take a nap in the bedroom. She made me take a nap on the couch where she could keep an eye on me," Frank says.
"The next thing I know he was snoring, like a freight train is the best way I can describe it, and unresponsive," Linda says.
His heart had stopped beating.
Linda quickly called 911 and started the chest compressions. Simple steps that saved Frank's life.
Doctors found 100 percent blockage in one of Frank's arteries, a condition known as "the widowmaker."
"I don't think about the day except when I start talking about it," says Linda.
Frank realizes the impact of his wife's actions: "I'm almost speechless sometimes on how much I love her and am appreciative of her."
"The ones who do receive bystander CPR, their chances of survival increase. It doubles or even triples," says Nurse Sension.
"Every day, waking up is a celebration. It's a birthday. I say I had a re-birthday thanks to my lovely wife here," Frank says.
"You want to place your hands between the nipple line. And so it will be right there," says nurse Michelle Sension. "You also want to give the chest some time to inflate back before your push again."
Nurse Sension makes CPR look simple. And it is.
No mouth-to-mouth needed. Just steady compressions to the chest; 100 per minute done to the tune of a famous disco song.
"You know at the time of an emergency you're going to be really nervous and all the adrenaline is running through your body but if you just sing the 'Stayin Alive' song by the Bee Gees and try to time your compressions with it, you'll save a life," Nurse Sension says.
"It's not that you panic, but it's like, 'Oh, what's going on and you just do it,'" recalls Linda Gonzalez, who had to perform CPR on her husband.
Gonzalez put the little CPR knowledge she had to the test back in May when her husband frank got overheated while mowing, and she could tell something was wrong.
"She wouldn't let me take a nap in the bedroom. She made me take a nap on the couch where she could keep an eye on me," Frank says.
"The next thing I know he was snoring, like a freight train is the best way I can describe it, and unresponsive," Linda says.
His heart had stopped beating.
Linda quickly called 911 and started the chest compressions. Simple steps that saved Frank's life.
Doctors found 100 percent blockage in one of Frank's arteries, a condition known as "the widowmaker."
"I don't think about the day except when I start talking about it," says Linda.
Frank realizes the impact of his wife's actions: "I'm almost speechless sometimes on how much I love her and am appreciative of her."
"The ones who do receive bystander CPR, their chances of survival increase. It doubles or even triples," says Nurse Sension.
"Every day, waking up is a celebration. It's a birthday. I say I had a re-birthday thanks to my lovely wife here," Frank says.
