After 68 Minutes with No Pulse, Minnesota Paramedic Is Brought Back To Life

Wayne Schneider Credits His Survival to a Dedicated Team of Responders and the Use of Groundbreaking Technologies

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fifty-six-year-old Hennepin County paramedic Wayne Schneider doesn’t remember much about the events of December 17, 2012. He remembers the respiratory distress call he was responding to with Greg Booth, his paramedic partner of 22 years. He remembers putting his patient on a stretcher and preparing to load him into the ambulance. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital.

“This whole thing is so surprising to me – it’s just a perfect storm that saved my life”

He was shocked to learn he had suffered cardiac arrest. And he was even more shocked to learn he had gone without a pulse for 68 minutes.

As a paramedic for almost 25 years, Schneider knows how fortunate he is to be not only alive, but fully functioning. There are over 300,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the US each year, and of those, approximately 92 percent die. Furthermore, those who survive often have some sort of permanent neurological damage.

He attributes his survival to getting immediate, high quality CPR and the use of cutting edge techniques and technologies, including the ResQPOD^® Impedance Threshold Device (ITD), a device developed right here in the Twin Cities which improves blood flow to the heart, brain and other vital organs.

“A PERFECT STORM SAVED MY LIFE”

Schneider, who has taught tens of thousands of people how to perform CPR, is the picture of health. At 5 foot-10 inches and 165 pounds, the married father of three and grandfather of four hardly looked as though he was close to cardiac arrest.

But when Booth saw Schneider slumped over in the front seat of the ambulance, he knew his partner was in trouble. Booth jumped into action and immediately started performing CPR as he called dispatch, “Medic Down – send a truck, Code 3!” (Code 3 is an indication to use lights and sirens.)

Paramedics Jordan Waddell and Shane Stevens arrived and started automated CPR before transporting him to Hennepin County Medical Center, where they continued resuscitation efforts with the ResQPOD and a LUCAS mechanical CPR device - unwilling to give up because there were signs that Schneider was responding to treatment even though he didn’t have a pulse.

After 68 minutes of CPR with the ResQPOD and the LUCAS, followed by interventional cardiology and therapeutic hypothermia, Schneider stabilized. More importantly, he survived with complete neurologically-intact function and was released from the hospital just 14 days later on New Year’s Eve.

“This whole thing is so surprising to me – it’s just a perfect storm that saved my life,” said Schneider. “I know the odds of cardiac arrest, and statistically speaking, I should not be here today. I got a second chance, and I am living proof that with high quality CPR and innovations like the ResQPOD and the LUCAS, cardiac arrest is not a death sentence. I want my story to help change the paradigm of cardiac arrest response. Don’t give up – we can save lives we never thought we could save before.”

“THIS TECHNOLOGY GAVE ME A SECOND CHANCE”

Invented by Minneapolis Electrophysiologist Dr. Keith Lurie in 1993 and commercially available since 2005, the ResQPOD^® ITD that was used on Schneider increases circulation during CPR by refilling the heart with more blood after each chest compression.

“CPR by itself is inefficient because you lose intrathoracic pressure with each compression. That means that the heart can’t pull in or push out blood at maximum capacity,” commented Dr. Lurie. “But if you can regulate the pressure in the chest, you can support better blood flow to the organs and possibly create better outcomes for the patient.”

With conventional CPR, compressing the chest forces air out of the lungs, and blood out of the heart. As the chest wall recoils, a small but important vacuum is created inside the chest that helps return blood to the heart. When air rushes back into the lungs during conventional CPR, that critical vacuum is wiped out, resulting in decreased blood return, and therefore less circulation to the heart, brain, and other vital organs.

The ResQPOD works by selectively preventing air from being drawn into the lungs during chest wall recoil. This enhances the vacuum, which allows more blood to be pulled back into the heart, and lowers intracranial pressure. As a result, more blood is circulated to vital organs until the heart can be restarted.

Schneider is no stranger to the ResQPOD ITD. He used them in his work with Hennepin County, and believed in their efficacy, which has only proven true with his now all too personal experience. “Even before I had my cardiac arrest, ITDs just make logical sense to me – more blood flow equals better preservation of organs, which can only benefit the patient. But now I have a different perspective and I truly believe this technology helped give me a real second chance at life.”

Studies¹ have shown that during CPR, the ResQPOD doubles blood flow to the heart and brain, doubles systolic blood pressure, increases the chances of successful defibrillation, circulates drugs more effectively, and increases survival rates by 25 percent or more.

ABOUT ADVANCED CIRCULATORY:

Founded in 1997, Advanced Circulatory has developed a novel platform therapy that provides Perfusion on Demand™ and that has beneficial implications for multiple emergency medical conditions. This non-invasive therapy increases circulation, protecting the heart, brain and other vital organs when blood flow is compromised. This gives rescuers and caregivers the potential to return patients to a full life after severe medical emergencies. The company manufactures and markets the ResQPOD^® (Perfusion on Demand) and the ResQGARD^® impedance threshold devices.

¹ Studies available upon request. The generally cleared indication for the ResQPOD available for sale in the United States (US) is for a temporary increase in blood circulation during emergency care, hospital, clinic, and home use. Research is ongoing in the US to evaluate the long-term benefit of the ResQPOD for indications related to patients suffering from cardiac arrest. The studies referenced here are not intended to imply specific outcomes-based claims not yet cleared by the US FDA.