Survivor very grateful, recuperating at home

    “I know God put you all there to help me,” Dave Divis told Tracy Trumper in a welcomed phone call Wednesday morning, May 22.
    Divis was already home from the hospital, where he was taken Saturday afternoon, May 18, from the state track meet in Lakewood. He and Trumper were strangers but fellow track spectators when Divis quit breathing and had no pulse, and Trumper, sitting nearby, started CPR.
    A cattle ranch owner from Hugo, Divis, 68, was watching the girls long jump with his fiancee, Clarine Denton, whose granddaughter was competing. Trumper was watching her own daughter in the event.
    Trumper said Divis told her he had an electrical short in his heart, which caused arrhythmia. At the hospital, he had a defibrillator put in.
    He told her that his heart is weak now, so he is on medication and will definitely be resting. In a lighter moment, Trumper said Divis told her, “I know that you’re really good at CPR because my chest really feels it!”
    “It was crazy to hear his voice,” Trumper said, adding there was such a flow of emotions from both of them in realizing what they’d been through.
    Trumper said Divis told her, “They told me [at the hospital] how lucky I am.”
    
CPR classes offered in Holyoke
    John Durbin and Shawn Borland conduct CPR classes in Holyoke. Borland said there will be a class conducted in mid-June through Melissa Memorial Hospital. Those interested in signing up may contact her at 970-580-1525.
    While they try to conduct classes quarterly through MMH, Borland said they also do classes in the community through the American Heart Association, as needed for required training.
    
Importance of bystander CPR emphasized
    During national CPR and AED Awareness Week June 1-7, the American Heart Association will shine a spotlight on how lives can be saved if more Americans learned how to perform CPR and use an automated external defibrillator.
    Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. and approximately 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. When a person has a cardiac arrest, survival depends on immediately receiving CPR from someone nearby. For every minute without CPR, chances of survival decrease by 10 percent.
    CPR, especially if performed immediately, can triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival. However, only about 46 percent of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive the immediate help that they need before professional help arrives. EMS response times can range from four to more than 10 minutes.
    According to the AHA, many Americans do not perform CPR because they do not know what to do or they are afraid of hurting the person.
    To help increase the likelihood of people performing CPR in an emergency, the AHA recommends learning Hands-Only CPR, which has two steps: Step 1 — Call 911, Step 2 — Push hard and fast in the center of the chest until help arrives.
    Hands-Only CPR has been shown to be as effective as conventional CPR for adult cardiac arrest at home, at work or in public.
    When performing CPR, a person should push on the chest at a rate of 100-120 compressions per minute. People feel more confident performing Hands-Only CPR and are more likely to remember the correct rate when trained to the beat of a familiar song.
    Song examples that are 100-120 beats per minute include “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira or “Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash.
    The AHA still recommends CPR with compressions and breaths for infants, children, victims of drowning or drug overdose, or people who collapse due to breathing problems.
    In 2007, the AHA, in coalition with the American Red Cross and the National Safety Council, worked collaboratively to federally designate a National CPR and AED Awareness Week, which happens the first seven days of June each year.