Interest in CPR soars after Hamlin NFL horror. Here’s where to learn it in Kansas City

In the hours after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin received life-saving CPR on the football field in Cincinnati, people flooded social media with prayers and this pledge: I’m going to learn CPR.

Joining them on Twitter were doctors across the country imploring people to learn the life-saving technique.

Many people have taken the first step. Traffic shot up 200% on the American Heart Association’s CPR website since the horrifying incident seen by millions on “Monday Night Football.”

In that case, NFL medical personnel were at the ready with a defibrillator. But for regular folks, CPR given by someone nearby — whether at home or in public — can save a cardiac arrest victim.

Of the 350,000 cardiac arrests in America every year, about 70% strike in homes, which means most people’s lives depend on a family member or friend.

“Damar Hamlin is a clear example of how immediate CPR can make the difference between life and death,” Dr. Paul Chan, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, told The Star.

“While we do not know his eventual outcome, I have no doubt that prompt CPR maximized his chance of surviving the cardiac arrest.

“His tragic event reminds us of the life-saving potential of CPR and how we all should get trained to be there for our loved ones and family, as well as strangers.”

You don’t need a class to learn the basics of CPR, which DeEtta Lee has been emphasizing to people since Monday night. She is the communications director for the heart association in Kansas City.

“One of the big things I have been trying to stress during this time is that you do not have to be certified to save a life,” Lee said. “Hands-Only CPR is literally only two steps. Even children learn it.”

The instructions are at heart.org/CPR. But it goes like this: If you see someone in cardiac arrest, first call 911.

Then, press hard and fast in the center of their chest at a rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute using the song “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees as your guide.

“The younger generations don’t know ‘Stayin’ Live’ so we also say ‘Baby Shark,’” said Lee. “There’s actually a whole Spotify playlist that we put together that has songs which are 100 beats per minute.”

The heart association dropped its mouth-to-mouth resuscitation recommendation in 2008, which makes CPR easier for bystanders, said Lee. “It’s proven to be just as effective, and our goal is that everybody knows CPR because we know that 70% of cardiac arrests happen within the home,” she said.

But most bystanders don’t step in, performing CPR only 46% of the time, according to the heart association.

That lack of intervention kills people: Only about 1 in 10 people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Chan, who researches cardiac arrest, has also found unsettling racial and ethnic disparities in how CPR is given, highlighting biases that society needs to confront, he said.

Black and Hispanic people were less likely to receive CPR from someone at home than white people — 38.5% versus 47.4%, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Chan was the lead author.

They were also less likely than white people to receive CPR from a bystander in public places — 45.6% to 60%.

Women are less likely to receive CPR from bystanders, too, said Lee, because people are uncomfortable pressing on their chests.

Minutes matter

CPR is known to double or even triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival. “Had Damar not received CPR or had long delays to CPR, the chance of recovering a pulse on the football field would have dropped to below 20%,” said Chan.

CPR kept blood flowing to his brain and vital organs “until the defibrillator jump-started his heart,” said Chan.

More so than any other medical condition, said Chan, cardiac arrest is unique because your heart and breathing stop. “When our heart stops and we stop breathing, we start losing brain cells and organ cells within the first couple of minutes,” said Chan.

Because irreversible damage can happen so quickly, bystanders are urged to do CPR even if they’re not confident how to do it, Lee said. “It’s better to try because in that instance when someone has collapsed from cardiac arrest, they are essentially dead,” said Lee.

The pushing is hard and steady, at least two inches into the chest.

“It is physically exhausting to perform CPR. And it’s one of those things, if you break ribs, that’s OK,” said Lee. “I have talked to individuals who have been saved by CPR and for them to wake up with broken ribs is not such a big deal to them because they’re alive.”

Anyone who performs hands-only CPR in good faith is protected by Good Samaritan laws, the heart association says.

Racial bias?

Chan and his fellow researchers examined more than 110,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases between 2013 and 2019 recorded by CARES, the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival founded by Emory University in Atlanta.

Co-sponsored by the heart association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the registry collects data from paramedic and ambulance agencies across the country that serve 170 million Americans.

Chan anticipated racial disparities. Earlier research revealed differences in cardiac arrest survival rates outside the hospital between white people and Black and Hispanic people, partly because of a lower rate of CPR training in those communities.

He and his colleagues found the gap for who received CPR in public was wide in communities that were more than 80% white.

“One of the things that we became more attuned to is there could have been issues of racial or implicit bias that came into play,” making bystanders hesitant to respond, said Chan. “Because when it happens in public, the person might be a stranger. So that raised the question of how that played into a lack of response to certain individuals.”

When a white person suffers cardiac arrest — whether in a predominantly white community or Black or Hispanic neighborhood — people make fewer assumptions about why they’re in distress, researchers found.

“I think when we talk about bias in response, this is not just limited to white bias, it’s bias whether it’s implicit or explicit, across the board,” said Chan. “When a white person goes down there are less assumptions about what is going on with them. There’s more of an implicit bias, if you will.

“There’s no way to confirm or establish that. But it certainly raised questions about how we need to narrow that gap.”

What now?

Chan and his colleagues recommended low-cost or free CPR training in Black and Hispanic communities, and using “linguistically appropriate and culturally sensitive CPR training” to reach them. Chan would like to see CPR training offered in Black churches and Hispanic community centers, places where access is limited.

They said more research is needed into whether making CPR training materials more diverse is effective.

Chan, for instance said that after he saw the results of the study, he Googled “CPR” and the first photos that popped up showed mostly white victims and bystanders offering assistance.

None showed people of color, and that’s a message that gets internalized. It’s subtle, but if people don’t see themselves in those images, “they might not see this as relevant to them,” he said.

Lee said the heart association is working on outreach to those communities. Recently, the group did CPR training for the youth sports community at Kansas City’s Guadalupe Center and will be offering more training at El Centro. She said, “This is something we haven’t always done a great job with.”

CPR training is a high school graduation requirement in Kansas and Missouri, along with 36 other states, a requirement spearheaded by the heart association.

For his part, Chan and his research colleagues this year will begin visiting communities across the country where paramedic agencies have reported high cardiac survival rates, particularly in Black and Hispanic communities. They will also visit some of the communities with the worst rates.

But in the end, “it’s not just more training,” said Chan. “We need to think about how people respond in public to individuals who are having medical emergencies. And part of that is creating a message that allows people to appreciate what a cardiac arrest is and that they can be part of the response.”

Where to learn CPR in Kansas City

▪ Hands-Only CPR: The American Heart Association recommends a two-part CPR method that even children can learn. It has a Spotify list of Don’t Drop The Beat songs that have rhythms to guide you through chest compressions. heart.org/cpr.

▪ American Heart Association classes: Find a course at heart.org/CPR. Classroom, online or hybrid. Classes are offered at dozens of sites across the metro. 1-877-AHA-4CPR or 1-877-242-4277.

▪ American Red Cross classes: Find one at redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr. In-person, online or hybrid. 800-RED-CROSS or 1-844-941-4698.