NAPERVILLE, ILL. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- There’ll be a celebration dinner in Naperville next week. Some of the guests are alive today thanks to a new method of performing CPR that was being tested over a 12-month period.
“I feel lucky as heck. I’ve really been given another chance at life,” said Allan Fisher, 69, who will be among six survivors at the dinner Monday night at Meson Sabika where he'll meet many of the people instrumental in keeping him alive following his cardiac arrests two months ago.
“I think it’s fantastic. I would love to shake every one of their hands and tell them they saved my life,” he said.
The Naperville Fire Department was the first in Illinois to try a new way of responding to cardiac arrest patients, using a new CPR method that includes using a device that does compressions mechanically instead of relying on humans who can tire out.
“Firefighters and paramedics, no matter how well trained we are, and no matter how big and how strong you are, are terrible at performing CPR consistently," EMS Bureau Chief Jim Kubinski explained.
Twelve cardiac arrest patients survived over that field study year, up from the old average of seven from the previous three years, Kubinski continued.
Out of the 80 or so cardiac arrest runs Naperville EMS handled in the past year, there was a survivorship of just under 18 percent, he said. And that’s considered good because “the national average for survivorship for a cardiac arrest is about 9.5 percent,” he added.
“It’s amazing. It puts a smile on my face every time I think about what we’re doing," EMS Training Assistant Billy Croft said.
In the meantime, Fisher and his wife Elaine get to continue on after 46 years of marriage. She is thrilled to be able to meet those who saved her husband’s life. and believes there will be lots of “big, big hugs” during Monday's dinner.
The Naperville Fire Department learned of the new CPR method from the Rialto, Calif. Fire Department and is in the middle of a two-year trial.
Kubinski said the Naperville Fire Department has 11 of the mechanical chest compression devices. One for each fire station and an 11th to be available at major events in the western suburb.