In partnership with local emergency medical responders, Verde Valley Medical Center’s Emergency department is supporting a growing national trend toward continuous chest compression (CCC) resuscitation versus cardiopulmonary (CPR) resuscitation. Recent medical research shows traditional CPR is not the best way to treat cardiac arrest, and survival is significantly better among patients who receive CCC than those who do not.

More than 300,000 persons die of sudden cardiac arrest each year. Cardiac arrest is a condition in which the heart abruptly stops pumping blood. In many cases, the heart suddenly goes from a regular heartbeat to a random twitching, called ventricular fibrillation. When the heart is quivering like that, blood is not moved through the body, and the patient passes out.

A patient in cardiac arrest has very little chance of survival unless someone takes immediate action to sustain him/her until paramedics arrive. In the past, it was recommended that bystanders perform CPR that alternates chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth ventilations. However, unlike respiratory arrest, during which the victim does not get enough air and the heart eventually stops because it no longer receives oxygen, a person who collapses because of sudden cardiac arrest usually was breathing normally just seconds before. In this case, there is no point in delaying the start of chest compression by trying to deliver “rescue breaths” to a person whose blood and lungs are full of oxygen. Studies have found that the blood of a cardiac arrest victim contains enough oxygen to sustain him/her for several minutes. More important, mouth-to-mouth breathing takes valuable time away from urgently needed continuous chest compressions. 

All Verde Valley EMS and Fire agencies have been trained in the new CCC procedure and will be utilizing these cutting edge measures. For more information, both VVMC and Verde Valley Fire agencies teach CPR and CCC classes.