by Tom SirmonsWritten by Tom SirmonsUpdated October 2026 with current CPR and AED guidance. A half-marathon is supposed to end with a finish line, a medal, and a deep breath. For one 40-year-old runner in San Jose, California, the real finish line became something else entirely. According to the original account, he was only about a tenth […]
by Tom SirmonsWritten by Tom SirmonsUpdated October 2026 with verified details and current CPR guidance. You are never too young to learn CPR. In May 2009, 15-year-old Sara Broski proved that in a very real way when a woman suddenly collapsed aboard a BART train in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sara had completed CPR training only […]
by Tom SirmonsUpdated September 2026 with current CPR and AED guidance. The emergency call to Marin County, California, sounded routine: “Bicyclist down.” Firefighters and paramedics respond to plenty of calls involving cyclists, many of them relatively minor. This one was different. When emergency responders arrived, they found a cyclist in cardiac arrest and a nearby person already […]
by Tom SirmonsWritten by Tom Sirmons When someone suffers sudden cardiac arrest, the person standing nearby may be their best chance of survival. Cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood effectively. Within seconds, the person usually becomes unresponsive and stops breathing normally. Without blood flow, the brain and other vital organs quickly begin to […]
by Karen HelmOur hands have been known to accomplish many things, but the greatest, is saving a life.
by Carin MangimeliThe American Heart Association recently changed the CPR guidelines to reflect five years of research indicating restarting blood circulation is more important…
by Tom SirmonsLeo Staudacher hadn’t planned on watching the Michigan-Notre game on television, let alone in a hospital ICU unit. But he was very grateful to have seen the end of the game at all. The 69 year old Bay City man was watching the game at Michigan Stadium when he collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest, […]
by Tom SirmonsWhen paramedics in Dallas arrived at Sarah Zumwalt Middle School, they found a teacher in the midst of a heart attack. “He was in ventricular fibrillation, a fatal rhythm,” said Fire Department Lieutenant Greg Henderson. They also found that a fellow educator already was performing CPR. Said Henderson, “Bystander CPR is what saved this person’s […]