Illinois Medicine

CARDIAC CRUSADERS Illinois Heart Rescue is taking cardiac resuscitation to the streets It can happen in a heartbeat. Someone next to you collapses and stops breathing—at home, in the workplace or on the street. Caused by an electrical malfunction in the heart that disrupts the flow of blood to the brain and other vital organs, sudden cardiac arrest can kill within minutes—and lost time can mean lost lives. According to the American Heart Association, nearly 90 percent of those who suffer from an out-of- hospital cardiac arrest don't survive—and only 46 percent get the immediate help they need to have any chance. In many Chicago neighborhoods, the odds of getting immediate help can be below 10 percent. Since 2012, Illinois Heart Rescue has been working to improve these outcomes by strengthening three critical links in the chain of survival: bystander CPR, pre-hospital resuscitation by emergency medical personnel, and post-arrest hospital care. Led by UI Health and funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Medtronic Foundation, Illinois Heart Rescue is achieving these goals by offering free instruction in bystander CPR, providing simulation training for EMS providers and 911 dispatchers, working with hospitals to improve post-cardiac-arrest care, and addressing at the policy level disparities in survival rates. With a goal of doubling sudden-cardiac-arrest survival rates throughout the state, Illinois Heart Rescue is offering free CPR training at events large and small at locations throughout Chicago, including homeless shelters, domestic abuse shelters and other organizations that serve the public. "Immediate CPR, performed by a bystander, is the best chance a person has of surviving a sudden cardiac event," says Terry Vanden Hoek, MD, chair of the department of emergency medicine at UI Health and the project leader for Illinois Heart Rescue. "We're reaching out to every Illinois resident because everyone deserves the best care, no matter where they have their cardiac arrest." — Susan Reich Many are very sick, too, with uncontrolled chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, COPD and heart failure. "We've been surprised to find high rates of traumatic brain injury, and head and neck cancers," says Brown, "and their average life expectancy is 25 years less than the average American." "Traditionally the health care industry has focused on 'curing' people during episodes of sickness," says Avijit Ghosh, PhD, CEO of UI Health. "As a result, homeless patients tend to make repeated visits to the emergency room or the hospital. Better Health Through Housing is trying to break that cycle by providing some of these patients with a stable living environment." For more information about Better Health Through Housing, visit go.uic.edu/Better-Health-Through-Housing. The Better Health Through Housing program, led by Terry Vanden Hoek, chair of emergency medicine (white coat, at left), and Stephen Brown, project director and head of the Preventive Emergency Medicine Initiative, has greatly improved the health prospects of formerly homeless individuals like Glenn Baker (above), who now has a place to call home thanks to the project. I L L I N O I S M E D I C I N E 33 Select photography by Lloyd DeGrane was supported by a grant from the Social Justice News Nexus at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

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