Brian Pendleton recalls that he "felt faint, went down on one knee and fell face first."
Then his heart stopped.
A quick-thinking bystander -- who had taken a class on the use of an automated external defibrillator just the week before -- shocked him back to life.
On Monday, Pendleton, 57, spoke at a gathering at the American Red Cross offices in West Akron where he and others pushed AED and CPR training, as well as a federal proposal to get the portable machines in every school in the nation.
Pendleton, whose cardiac arrest in 2004 came after teaching a karate class at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium, said he is a testament "to the effectiveness of the training and the AEDs -- I'm one of the 5 percent."
Dr. Terry Gordon, who retired last year from Akron General Medical Center, spearheaded an effort that installed about 4,700 defibrillators in schools throughout Ohio. He said 95 percent of victims of sudden cardiac arrest die before reaching a hospital.
That's "a dismal number," Gordon said.
Every year, more than 300,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac ar
rest.
"All CPR does is propel blood through the body -- in a limited fashion," Gordon said shortly after speaking to a news conference at the Red Cross Summit County chapter.
"The shock resumes the normal beat of the heart," Gordon said. "The quicker the shock can be delivered, the greater the chance of that person surviving."
For every minute that passes with the victim experiencing ventricular fibrillation -- the heart quits beating and instead is quivering -- the chance of survival drops by 10 percent, Gordon said.
Gordon and the others said the machines, which range in price from about $1,000 to $2,500, are easy to use. The machine literally talks the user through the procedure and determines whether or not a shock should be administered.
Ohio is considered a model for other U.S. communities nationwide, said U.S Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Twp.
Speaking at Monday's event, Sutton said she "is optimistic" the federal bill to provide grants for AEDs nationwide will be voted on by the House this month and become law this year. She proposed the bill.
Federal number crunchers estimate it might cost $200 million to get AEDs in every school in the country, she said.
Sutton's bill, HR 4926, is called the Josh Miller HEARTS (Helping Everyone Access Responsive Treatment in Schools) Act. It is named for a Josh Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore at Barberton High School who died in 2000 on the sideline after coming out of a football game. It was later determined that Josh had a rare, undetected heart defect.
Akron General Medical Center administered the Ohio program. The state provided $5 million to install AED machines throughout the state.
Pendleton, who lives in Cuyahoga Falls and is a sociology professor at the University of Akron, said he calls the man who administered the AED shock "Dad."
That man is Joseph Fabick, who was a manager at the Cuyahoga Natatorium at the time.
This week marks the first national CPR and AED Awareness Week.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. To see more of the Akron Beacon Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ohio.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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