April 17, 2007 — ZOLL Medical Corp. announced the top winners of the ZOLL CPR Challenge that took place in the company's booth during the recent EMS Today Conference and Expo 2007 in Baltimore, including two youths who out-performed many professionals in the hour in which they competed. Two-hundred and forty-five (245) attendees performed more than 40,000 chest compressions over the course of the conference.
The CPR Challenge had participants performing two minutes of CPR on a 2005 American Heart Association (AHA)/European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines-compliant ZOLL AED Plus or ZOLL AED Pro with Real CPR Help. Their chest compressions were measured and considered "In Target" when performed close to the AHA/ERC recommended rate of 100 compressions per minute (80 to 110 being the allowable range for this challenge) and recommended depth of 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Achieving the proper rate and depth recommended by AHA and ERC is necessary for maintaining blood flow to the brain and heart of a cardiac arrest victim.
After an attendee completed two minutes of CPR, data were immediately downloaded wirelessly and evaluated on ZOLL RescueNet Code Review software in real time so that attendees could see for themselves the following information:
* The complete ECG that acts as a timeline for the entire rescue event;
* A readout of the frequency and depth of their CPR chest compressions;
* Their percentage of "Compressions in Target";
* A visual representation of all compressions in terms of depth and rate; and
* Data points showing when audible prompts (e.g., "Push Harder" or "Good Compressions") were communicated to the rescuer.
The three CPR trainers with the highest percentage of compressions in target were:
* Tito Jackson from Ridgefield, NJ at 99.69 percent;
* John Spicuzza from Ft. Myers, Fla. at 99.50 percent; and
* Sgt. JB Wallace from Washington, D.C., with 99.02 percent of her CPR compressions in target.
"This was the first time that I went directly from doing CPR to understanding how well I had performed it," said Jackson, the top performer. "There is real value in being able to have this level of detail, given 2005 AHA Guidelines recommendations. The kind of detailed information I saw coming out of the ZOLL AEDs — literally minutes after performing CPR — is something that would be quite valuable in terms of training both healthcare professionals and lay rescuers."
Two other top performers of note were youngsters. One was 13 year-old Aaron David from Harrisburg, PA, who had some previous CPR training, had 99.01 percent of his CPR compressions in target.
Another was 11-year-old Kyler Scheerer from Seaford, DE, who had 96.98 percent of his CPR compressions in target, with no previous training. The ZOLL Real CPR Help feature guided them and all participants with audible and visual prompts on rate and depth of compressions.