tonight we talk with the manager from Penn State Health Lifeline and the director of the Peyton walker Foundation as we put cardiac arrest in focus. Yeah this is W. G. G. L. Eight in focus coverage you can count on And I'm joined now by Adam Martin with Penn State Health Lifeline. Thank you so much for being here with us. I know you have 38 years I believe of experience dealing with cardiac events and you even had to respond to some yourself first. Let's talk about the difference between cardiac events because there's cardiac arrest and *** heart attack which are separate. Yeah thank you for having me. So *** heart attack is when there's *** blockage to the vessel going to the heart and the oxygen and blood can't flow to the heart And *** part of that heart muscle dies. *** cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating completely and there is no no blood flow throughout the body to the vital organs. And cardiac arrest among athletes is definitely something that's very concerning rare thankfully but does happen and even something that you've responded to sure athletes are rare. I mean one in 42, 1 in 80,000 athletes go into cardiac arrest but it does happen and it can happen at any age and you were saying even as young as an infant any age and then there's also older and there's some reasons between the two. Tell me about that, correct? Well with the older athletes coronary artery disease which is the build up of plaque in the arteries going to the heart can stop the blood flow or decrease the blood flow going to the heart and causing them going to cardiac arrest. Um cardiomyopathy for the younger adults and um arrhythmias to the heart are *** big part of cardiac arrest. Um Non traumatic for the younger athletes. The cardiomyopathy is *** cause of the hardening of the heart and the heart can't pump the blood out well enough to the body. Some of these could be identified by an E. K. G. Or some other kind of medical procedure maybe perhaps during *** physical which is not required in pennsylvania right? You know it's not required and it's it's good for the athletes that are going to be participating in sports to have full physicals and an E. K. G. And you know the parents or the athletes can definitely ask the physicians. I know just five months ago you were telling me before we started here that you responded to *** cardiac arrest among an athlete. Tell me that story. Sure. So our crews responded to *** cardiac arrest of an 18 year old who was playing basketball and he had shortness of breath and collapsed. His friends were on scene one called 911 and started and once started chest compressions and the patient had to be defibrillator *** couple of times was successfully resuscitated and is doing very well. And now we've seen this in football, we've seen this in basketball. But this could happen in any sport, any sport that you're putting the stress on your heart on your body and that's why it's very important to be checked out. Some of this is genetics and you know some it's lifestyle. So it's always good to have blood work the E. K. G. In full physicals. Now the 18 year old you were able to save him. I'm so thankful for that. But that has not always been the case. No. I mean Out of hospital cardiac arrest there around 350,000 in the United States and only 10% are successfully saved and discharged from the hospital with good neurological outcome. Why is that? I think people are still nervous to do CPR and we need to train more people. What do you suggest if you are on the scene maybe you don't know what to do? What should someone do? We'll definitely start call 911 and try to get help to them. That's the best thing you can do. The dispatcher could give you instructions on how did you chest compressions and honestly you're not going to hurt that person. So we want you to try the best you can. I know you were saying one of the barriers you think some people might have to doing CpR is the mouth to mouth That that's kind of *** turn off for some people. But there are other options nowadays. There's hands only CpR compressions are the most important part of CpR. So if you learn hands only CpR you have *** good chance of bringing that patient back. And CPR has changed over the years as well. How often do you need to be re certified if you are trained sure. Every two years re certified and if you watch some videos or review the book, just some refreshers because you're not going to use it *** lot and it's always good to refresh on it. What is it like for you to respond to one of these cases? It's very stressful. Um you know they're all ages, all circumstances and you have to deal with the family as well. So it could be very stressful for for all the E. M. S. Workers, the police departments and it's always rewarding when you when you save somebody and you bring somebody back, we're thankful that you have been able to do that. And we're also thankful that Adam you're gonna stick around and you're gonna show all of us *** demonstration on Cpr. So we will be right back with that. This is W. G. B. L. Eight in focus coverage you can count on, We are continuing our conversation now with Adam Martin with Penn State Health Lifeline. We've been talking about cardiac events cardiac arrest specifically and oftentimes in athletes although it's rare, that's the hot topic that we want to address because if we can save one one person, that's what you want to do and cpr is such *** big part of that. Show us how to get started. Okay so cpr first thing you wanna do is make sure the scene is safe because you don't want to get injured yourself. After that. You want to make sure the patient is unconscious. So you're gonna shake and shout after you find the patient's unconscious. You're gonna call out for some help, have somebody call 911 and if there's an ***. E. D. Around have them bring the ***. E. D. To the scene after that. You're gonna put your palm of your hand in between the nipple lines in the center of the chest and you're gonna push hard and fast. Sometimes we use the song staying alive for the rhythm. So we're gonna push about two inches down on the chest. And we should notice that typically this would be on the floor not on the table. So you could put your entire body weight over top to really be able to push down. Yeah we have to use our entire body weight. And it has to be done on *** hard surface because you gotta be able to compress the heart between the sternum and spine to let the blood flow throughout the body to the vital organs. You also want to use what's called full recoil to make sure you come the chest comes back up so the heart can fill properly with the blood and oxygen. So the next step, you do that for two minutes you do that for two minutes and once the E. D. Arrives you want to put the E. D. On as soon as possible. Because the first rhythm usually of cardiac arrest is something called ventricular fibrillation or pulseless V. Tech. And the sooner we can shock the heart and stop that rhythm, the better chance we have to bring the patient back. So once the E. D. Arrives, the first thing you want to do is turn them on and on. Ladies work the same. You want to turn it on by pushing the green button and instruct you. You're going to put the pads on the patient. We hear it saying that and there is *** specific way that sure one goes on the right upper chest and the other one goes left mid axillary area. Cpr could be performed while we're putting the pads on because we want to try not to interrupt the chest compressions. So if you do have two people, one person continues to chest compressions even past the two minute mark, correct? Yes. While the other person, once you have the pads on you're going to put the connector into the machine and when it says not to touch *** patient it's analyzing. Know cpr nothing is being done for this patient because it's checking what rhythm the heart's in and we were saying that can be very difficult because it can be very chaotic. Family members could be right screaming. I think I would be if this was happening to my loved one. So what do you do while you're waiting? So you can you can talk to them and tell them what the machine is doing and how important that is. And I think it did give us an instruction. Sure. So the machine recognized that the patients in *** lethal heart rhythm and we can shock the patient. We want to make sure nobody is touching the patient because we don't want anybody shocked as well. Once the patient is ready to be shocked, you're gonna push the flashing button, the orange button, the orange button and it delivered the shock. And now it's the machine is going to analyze the heart rhythm and tell you what to do. So it's gonna we're gonna start CPR in *** patient again, it's we're going to do CPR for another two minutes and then the machine is going to analyze the heart rhythm again. And this type of CPR is only hands on. You do not need to do mouth to mouth, correct? No. Mouth to mouth. Just hands only again, compressions in the most important part of CPR to take that blood and deliver to the vital organs. And it will work just as effectively. Yes. And the most important thing really is that 911 call and getting someone like you who is trained and has the proper equipment into then give oxygen to the patient oxygen and we can give advanced life support, we can give medications to that patient. So, how long does it take to get trained on doing this? It seems simple right here. You just showed me in five minutes. Sure. It's um typically *** four hour class. Hands only CPR is about two hours. If you want to go *** little further, it's *** four hour class and you get certified for two years, you're covered by the Good samaritan laws. So you don't have to worry about that. And we encourage everybody to be trained in CPR again, like I said, only 10% of patients um survive out of hospital cardiac arrest with good neurological outcomes. So we we encourage everybody getting this chest compressions going can save *** life. And the Good samaritan law aspect of that. You were mentioning that if you are putting your full body weight on someone's chest, you could break their ribs. But it's better that they survive and you cannot be held liable because of the good samaritan law. Even if you were doing Don't have proper training, right? It's *** good Samaritan that will cover you. And I know we were talking in the previous segment about an 18 year old who was saved. And that CPR was done by an eight year old boy who had seen it on TV. Right. Exactly. Which is really impressive. So maybe just someone watching right now could be able to save *** life and we encourage that. If someone does have to take the CPR classes though, how do they go about doing that? They can contact penn state Health. Um Penn state Health Lifeline. We offer CpR classes. The american Heart Association has CpR classes listed. All right. And we still hear the ***. E. D. Doing its job adam. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Hopefully this will help someone out there and still to come on. W. G. ***. L. Eight in focus. We're going to talk with the founder of *** lifesaving organization in the valley about her personal story. This is W. G. G. L. Eight in focus coverage. You can count on I'm joined now by julie walker, the director of the Peyton walker Foundation and also Peyton's mom. And this is *** very personal topic for you, julie tell us what happened to Peyton when she was 19 years old. Well, we got the phone call that absolutely every parent dreads without warning. We lost our beautiful vibrant 19 year old daughter to sudden cardiac arrest And again, you know, no warning, no idea that this was gonna be the path that our life was going to take. So november 2nd 2013 Peyton got up to go to work actually in the emergency room. She was *** physician assistants student and had required hours that she had to work. Got up to get ready to go and never made it. Her roommate roommate had found her unresponsive in her apartment. Um we launched the foundation because Peyton wanted to work in health care and we knew we had to make *** difference and you know, make sure that Peyton's beat went on somehow. And you have done *** lot over the years since her passing, you've launched this foundation that has helped *** lot of students tell us about the programs that you've done over the years, starting with Children as young as 12. Correent. So really we figured there was *** three pronged approach to to try to accomplish our mission. And the first was heart screenings. We knew we had to find the hidden heart issues in kids that lead to sudden cardiac arrest. We found out sports physicals and well, child physicals weren't cutting it. They're missing almost 80% or even more of underlying heart issues listening to *** kid's heart with *** stethoscope doesn't determine an electrical problem. So we knew kids need an electrocardiogram to find these electrical issues. It's *** painless test. We were able to partner with all of the major healthcare systems throughout central pennsylvania go out to different schools screen thousands of kids and what we found was astounding to be honest, we found so many kids, some needed surgery, some will be on medication for the rest of their lives and some were identified with genetic issues that once we found them in the kids. then the parents went and got tested and we found that in them as well. So this has been *** phenomenal program that we've been able to execute. Thanks to all of our partners that would have gone undetected without these EKGs that you are offering. Exactly. And that's what's so sad. We know we've got to change the standard of care for our kids. You know, why aren't they getting *** standard or baseline electrocardiogram as part of their well child checkups or sports physicals. So we're slowly but surely picking away at this and trying to implement changes and I know I know change that you would like to see is more *** E. D. S. I know you have one in your own home but I do believe that is rare for *** residential, you know average citizen to have an *** E. D. In their home. But it's even not that common unfortunately in public places to potentially have enough of them. Well that's so true and and one of the big problems is we're getting more and more *** E. Ds out into the community but we're not seeing an increase in survival rates. And what is happening is when there's an emergency. We're not able to connect the E. D to the emergency. Um Like I said with with *** D. S. I've got one in my car and one of my house that's not normal. Most people don't but we know most cardiac or arrests happen in the house you know happened at home. So we really need to work on getting ***. D. S. Into communities more accessible not locked up. You know in *** school where nobody can access it on the weekends or evenings. So we really need to change where these are located and how how available they are. You've been doing *** great job of spreading awareness and that's what you're here today doing as well and we appreciate that. But you do feel that these E. K. G. Screenings that you've been able to offer just aren't enough. So are you pushing for lawmakers to change or insurance companies to change? What would you like to see happen? Well we know that's *** big that's *** big push to try to affect you know getting the law changed. We did it with patent law. So at least now we're educating the public about the importance of heart screenings. So we're working with UPMC we've been able to do some sports physicals and add electrocardiograms right into the sports physicals when they go out to the schools. I think it's it's gonna take *** lot of conversations. Um We've seen *** huge uptick in the number of cardiac arrests recently. So parents are becoming more aware. Students are becoming more aware and I think we all need to push back on the healthcare partners on the insurance companies and say why aren't we offering baseline electrocardiograms to kids. So I would love to see it become law. And just part of the standard of care for kids. But I think it's *** conversation every parent needs to have with your physician pediatrician asked for that baseline electrocardiogram and hopefully this will become the future of the standard of care for our kids. Some great information for parents. Especially because I know your program started with kids as young as 12. But you do believe it should go even younger. We'd love to see kids getting, you know when they're going to kindergarten, get an electrocardiogram. You know the well child physicals that are required for schools. I think it's kindergarten, eighth grade and 11th grade. So why not just add an electrocardiogram to those three physicals that are required for school physicals? It makes sense. I'd love to see it start younger. And you've also started another new program called Four Minutes Cities. Tell us about that. I am so proud of this program. It gives me goose bumps to talk about it. So we're going to be the second city in the United States. That is absolutely incredible. Um to launch and roll out this four minute city program. And what it does, it connects the 911 operator to *** brand new form of *** E. D. That's connected. So when the 911 operator gets *** call that they and they suspect *** cardiac arrest, they can actually push *** button. It will locate an ***. E. D. That's within one mile of where the call is coming from. The ***. E. D. Actually gets an alert cardiac arrest nearby. So the person who has that *** E. D. In their home and their business in their car, wherever it's located, they can be located. Um And the directed to where the cardiac arrest is, the goal is to get them. That's why we call it the four minute city. The goal is to get that ***. D. On the chest of *** cardiac arrest patients so we can deliver the shock, shock the heart and get *** normal rhythm reinstated every minute counts. Um These aids were putting in Cumberland County 300 of them are coming in april or May, there's no cost to participate. So if you live in Cumberland County, sign up for the four minute city program, we're going to Dolphin County next probably york. And then Lebanon County as well. We are incredibly excited about this life saving game changing technology spreading across the Susquehanna Valley. And I know julie, how has it been for you to watch these most recent Children and athletes having cardiac arrests. It's terrifying. It's terrifying and heartbreaking. You know, even when I turned the tv on on the other night for the football game, I just thought immediately, oh his mother, where is his mom? And what is she going through? I every time I read *** new headline of *** child dying from cardiac arrest. I mean it just breaks my heart and it takes me right back to the day we got the call. You never get over this. You don't, you don't stop grieving. I'll stop grieving the day I die. So we work tirelessly to make sure other parents don't have to live with this heartache. It's not acceptable. The numbers of sudden cardiac arrest we're seeing, we've got to be vigilant. Make sure people learn cpr get your kids hearts screened and make sure there's *** D. S available for the kids as well julie walker. Thank you for being with us and thank all of you for watching this important information. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for W G *** L eight in Focus for all of us here at W G *** L. I'm Caitlyn smith. Remember to join us again next saturday at seven for W G *** L eight in Focus right after NBC nightly news and you can watch every episode of in focus plus W G *** L latest newscasts, original programming and more. Just download the very local app and stream for free on Roku and amazon fire Tv