What would happen if you or a loved one went into cardiac arrest, and professional medical help was far away? Timothy Sommerfelt is a paramedic for the city of Cleveland, and he knows firsthand that when a person’s heart stops, help is by definition always too far away – unless, that is, a neighbor or bystander knows CPR, and jumps in to keep blood circulating to the brain until an ambulance arrives.
“It’s incredible to me,” explains Sommerfelt, “how much of a difference bystander CPR can make. To be quite frank, 911 is not going to get there in time. If you have a sudden cardiac arrest, if your heart stops beating – if somebody who’s right there doesn’t start doing CPR before we show up, the chances of a good outcome are very, very slim, statistically. Other types of issues – breathing issues, blood sugar issues with a diabetic – you might have five or ten minutes for the ambulance to get there, but this is truly one of the few times where it’s an absolute medical emergency and every second counts.”
“We really need the public’s help, as paramedics, as health care providers. All the stuff that happens at the hospitals, at the doctors, the paramedics, the ambulances – all that’s for naught, if we can’t get people to start doing bystander CPR before we arrive. Doing something is absolutely better than doing nothing.”
Why free, why small-scale, why now
The problem is, not enough of us know CPR. That’s why Sommerfelt decided to become certified as a CPR teacher, and to do his part – outside of his full-time job as a paramedic – to bolster a national push toward greater community preparedness. With a successful 20-student pilot run behind him, he’s on a mission to offer free, accessible, American Heart accredited CPR classes to as many Clevelanders as he can.
Right now, he’s nearly done raising money with ioby to cover mannequins, student workbooks, and other materials that will be needed by his next 40 students. “I volunteer my time for this,” Sommerfelt explains. “I don’t take one penny, because I feel it’s a very important thing for the community, and if God forbid something happened to me or my family members, I’d hope somebody would be there that knew what they were doing.”
The project’s origins are truly grassroots. “I taught a few classes to friends and family and neighbors,” Sommerfelt remembers, “and all of them said, ‘you know, you should make this available to more people.’ And I got a ton of emails from other neighbors saying ‘when are you going to offer CPR classes again?’ So this is very much a community-driven effort. It seems like people want to learn this stuff.”
Sommerfelt believes that there’s something special about offering CPR classes in communities, by neighbors and for neighbors. Interestingly, a lot of hospitals in Cleveland do offer CPR training, but turnout for those classes isn’t always great. “If it’s coming from somebody they’re familiar with,” says Sommerfelt, on the other hand, “like a neighbor, or it’s brought to them in their neighborhood at a time that’s convenient for them, we might be able to get more people enrolled. If you say ‘hey, we’re gonna have a class on a Sunday afternoon, why don’t you come by after church,’ we’ve had a pretty good response. We actually have 5-10 people on the waitlist.”
In accordance with American Heart Association regulations, Sommerfelt keeps classes small – just 6 students. This is no echoing lecture hall, no soporific PowerPoint presentation. You’re going to engage with the material, and leave knowing how to actually save lives.
“Instead of somebody just standing up there telling you something,” Sommerfelt says, “you’re getting involved, you’re down on your hands and knees, working with the students one-on-one. I hope they never encounter somebody in cardiac arrest, but if they do, we’re trying to build muscle memory so that they can just get in there and do what needs to be done, and feel confident.”
Here’s what bystander CPR looks like, in action
One of Sommerfelt’s first students was his own dad, who then went on to download to his phone an App called PulsePoint. PulsePoint is a marvel; it alerts you via text message if someone is in cardiac arrest in a public place within a quarter of a mile from you.
“Well, one day he got a text message on his app,” remembers Sommerfelt, “and he actually went to a local McDonald’s and did CPR on someone who had overdosed on heroin, and that person had a great outcome. So the stuff we’re doing works. It’s just a matter of putting it in the hands of as many people as possible.”
It doesn’t have to be perfect – just do it
Something Sommerfelt stresses highly is the fact that almost any bystander help, in the case of cardiac arrest, is better than none. His dad, for example, worried in that McDonald’s that he hadn’t performed the CPR exactly right. “He said ‘oh, I think I screwed up, I think I did it wrong,’” explains Sommerfelt, “and I said, ‘maybe you didn’t do it perfect, but the person had a good outcome, and that’s all that matters.’ He might have done the wrong number of compressions, he might have done the wrong number of breaths, but that’s ok. Again, you don’t have to be perfect, we just need someone to do something, instead of standing there.”
What you can do
Speaking of doing something… here’s what you can do, right now.
- Any funds raised beyond the target ioby campaign goal will go toward materials – possibly including more life-life mannequins, and automatic external defibrillators more like the ones that Cleveland students would encounter in a real-life situation in their neighborhood – for future classes.
- Find a CPR class in your town.
- Grab some neighbors and go outside – your hearts will thank you!
Feeling inspired? Want to take action in YOUR neighborhood? If you have awesome ideas about how to make your town greener, safer, and more fun, let us help! Tell us your awesome idea right here. We’d love to help you get started today.
Pssst…. In OTHER ioby news: Is there a wall, underpass, or streetscape in your town that could use some sprucing up? Check out this awesome, historical community mural going up in Louisville.