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East Oregonian
CPR: ‘Anyone can do it. Anyone can save a life’
Continued from 1A
last CPR class. The method
involves pumping hard and
fast mid-chest and doesn’t
include rescue breathing.
She compressed Margue-
rite’s chest again and again
before yielding to the Herm-
iston emergency medical
responders who sped to the
store. Tom stood back, his
adrenaline racing.
“I was a basket case,” he
said.
Paramedics and EMTs
used a supercharged version
of hands only CPR called
high-performance
CPR,
which
Hermiston
Fire
and Emergency Services
responders trained in the
method about a year ago.
Since then, the survival rate
has risen from roughly 10
percent to 50 percent for
cardiac arrest victims who
have what’s considered a
“survivable rhythm.”
“That’s higher than the
state or national average,”
said EMS Director J.W.
Roberts. “Our goal is 100
percent.”
“It’s a new mindset which
emphasizes
compression
speed and eliminates pauses
between
compressions
and keeping compressions
steady and continuous,” said
Dylan Spence, a ireighter/
EMT who worked to save
Marguerite.
“Science shows that
high performance CPR
is more effective and has
higher survival rates,” said
Hermiston paramedic Jeff
Armstrong. “You don’t stop
CPR ever for more than six
seconds.”
It’s a pit crew approach
with CPR as the main focus.
Compressions
continue
during
mouth-to-mouth,
intubation or any other
intervention, except for use
of an automatic external
deibrillator.
“Even when we stop
to shock someone, we
hover over their chest,”
said Spence. “In less than
a second, we’re back at it
again.”
The person doing the
compressions changes every
two minutes. The ireighters
use a CPR feedback device
for optimal performance. A
readout shows compression
rate: The optimal rate is
about 100-120 compressions
per minute. A disembodied
voice keeps them on track,
saying, “Push harder” or
“push faster” if they ease up.
Most in the business
of saving lives know the
success story of King County
EMS, which now reports a
cardiac arrest survival rate of
62 percent. The Seattle-area
EMS has also pushed to train
a multitude of local residents
in CPR.
Rebecca
Fancher,
American Heart Association
communications
director
in Oregon, said Seattle has
enjoyed so much success that
people joke that if a tourist
falls down on the sidewalk,
a bystander will likely start
CPR.
Many of the bystanders
are trained in something
called Hands Only CPR,
which AHA advocates for
rendering aid to teens or
adults in cardiac arrest.
Unlike traditional CPR, you
don’t worry about mouth-to-
mouth resuscitation — you
simply push rhythmically
on the center of the person’s
chest.
“You push hard and you
push fast,” Fancher said.
“Anyone can do it. Anyone
can save a life.”
First, she said, call 911.
Then do CPR compressions
to the beat of the disco song
“Stayin’ Alive” — that’s the
correct tempo.
Marguerite Darby is on
the mend. An internal cardiac
deibrillator is now implanted
in her chest, in case her
heart has another electrical
disruption. She feels better
every day, though she won’t
be able to drive or play
golf for a while. Both she
and Tom feel grateful they
weren’t home the moment
Marguerite’s heart stopped.
Also, she had been the one
driving the car that day, and
they shudder to think what
would have happened if her
heart had faltered then.
But, mostly, they feel
grateful to the emergency
responders and especially
the pharmacist who initiated
the CPR.
“The woman was contin-
uously pumping,” Tom said.
“She didn’t stop.”
“I’m grateful she was
there,” Marguerite said.
“They say we have guardian
angels everywhere — she
was mine.”
Armstrong said Schwab
likely made a big difference.
“Chances of somebody
surviving a cardiac arrest
has everything to do with
how fast CPR is started,”
he said. “After six minutes
without CPR, the chances
of survival just tanks. If she
hadn’t started CPR, there
might have been a different
outcome.”
Tom had ended pancreatic
cancer treatments only a
week earlier. The treatment
included surgery to remove
part of his pancreas, small
intestine and his gallbladder.
Tom said they are both trea-
suring every moment.
“Neither of us should
really be here,” he said.
“The little things that
come up,” Marguerite said.
“They aren’t important at
all.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
VOTERS: Primary included
more than 100,000 new voters
Continued from 1A
contest between Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Turnout was signiicantly
higher in that primary,
at 58.26 percent, and
1,170,526 votes were cast.
Jim Moore, a political
science professor and
director of the Tom McCall
Center for Policy Innova-
tion at Paciic University,
said turnout was much
higher than in many other
states including Kentucky
which also held a presiden-
tial primary on Tuesday.
Gronke and Moore both
said Oregon was likely able
to exceed the million-vote
mark because of excite-
ment about Democratic
presidential politics. The
matchup between Hillary
Clinton and Bernie Sanders
wracked up at least 551,230
votes. Write-in candidates
received another 10,229
votes.
But Democrat voters
were not as excited with
Tuesday’s contest as they
were in 2008, when Obama,
Clinton and the write-ins
split 638,790 votes.
Nor were they as excited
PRIMARY: Pendleton City Council
at-large race will go to Nov. ballot
Continued from 1A
TREATMENT: Designed to last nine months, may take years
Continued from 1A
The recidivism average
in Umatilla County is 20.35
percent — a 10 percent
decrease since the program
was implemented in 2006,
according
to
Umatilla
County Community Justice
Director Dale Primmer.
Most participants — 75
percent — do not receive a
new conviction in the three-
years after they graduate.
That 75 percent igure stays
relatively consistent at the
county, state and national
level.
“If you were to pull up the
jail roster on any day, 80-90
percent of those are drug-re-
lated charges,” Temple said.
“If you took out everyone
in jail who had a drug- or
alcohol-related crime, we’d
have 10-12 people left.”
Not everyone charged
with a drug- or alcohol-re-
lated crime lands in drug
court — it focuses on medium
and high-risk offenders.
Low-risk offenders who
complete probation without
re-offending do not enter the
program.
The program is designed
to last nine months, but may
take years.
“A lot of it depends on
the support. People who
have family support often
do better. If you don’t have
that support structure, it takes
longer to get back on your
feet,” Temple said.
Morgan Johnson, of
Pendleton, is one of those
cases. After 2 1/2 years in the
program, Johnson graduated
from Umatilla County Drug
Court on Friday. She, like
Massingale, said drug court
saved her life. Johnson irst
tried methamphetamine on
the night of her high school
graduation.
“When I was out there
Staff Photo by Jennifer Colton
Morgan Johnson, of Pendleton, receives a certiicate
during the Umatilla County Drug Court graduation
on Friday. After struggling with a methamphetamine
addiction, she credits drug court with saving her life.
using, I didn’t think I had
a problem — until I got
caught,” she said. “This
showed me a new way to live.
I’m really very grateful that I
was put into drug court.”
The program helps work
with users who have lost
everything as well as those
who may appear to have it
together. Massingale, for
example, attended college
classes and maintained a
job while struggling with
her addiction. When she
committed to the Drug Court
program, she suddenly had to
struggle with attending hours
of meetings, counseling and
drug testing each week.
“It’s hard. You just set
yourself to it,” Massingale
said. “You tell yourself you
can do it and your life will be
better. I went to many lengths
to get high. I can go many
lengths to get sober.”
To complete drug court,
participants are expected to
have a job or be enrolled in
school full-time.
“We’re really trying to
create responsible citizens
by the end of the program,”
Temple said.
During the ceremony,
Temple and state Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, presented
graduates with plaques and
a yellow rose of recovery.
Craig Rodriguez, a Umatilla
County Drug Court alumnus,
spoke about his experience
with the court.
“Without drug court,
I probably wouldn’t be
standing here today,” said
Rodriguez. “It was a path to
salvation for me.”
Rodriguez, one of the irst
graduates of drug court, grew
up in a drug environment
and became a cocaine dealer
— and addict — at the age
of 17. It took the death of
his mother, the loss of his
children and an overdose for
him to give rehabilitation a
LIFE FLIGHT
NETWORK
CUSTOMER
OPEN
HOUSE
Sat. May 21 • 9am-1pm
5250 NW Doolittle Lane
Pendleton, OR
8th Annual Return to the
River Salmon Festival
Saturday, May 21, 2016 • 10am – 1pm
At Walla Walla Community College
by the ball fields on Tausick Way
1 0am - 1pm: Interactive Exhibit Booths
Wildlife Cartoon Drawnings
First Foods & Medicinal Plant Display
11:30am: Chinook Salmon Release
11am - 1pm: Wine Country Culinary Institute Food Truc k
Sockeye Salmon Tacos, Salmon Chowder, Titus Creek Burger,
Mediterranean Chicken Gyro, Garlic Fries
(Prices rang from $5 - $9)
Children's Hot Dog Lunch Available
12pm - 1pm: Tribal Dance Performance
Presented by Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
and Walla Walla Community Colleges Water and Environmental Center.
For info visit www.watereducationcenter.org
chance.
“Drug court is just a name.
It’s the people that work and
keep hope alive,” he told
current participants during
the graduation. “There is
hope.”
The graduates each had
advice to those struggling
with addictions: Join drug
court and take it seriously,
focus on what is important
and take the often dificult
process one day at a time.
“It would be a really wise
decision to join,” Johnson
said. “You have to be open
minded, you have to want to
be there, but you can do it.”
———
Contact Jennifer Colton
at jcolton@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4534.
about Clinton. Although
she lost to Obama in 2008
by 116,000 votes, Clinton
received 15,552 more votes
then than she did Tuesday.
She lost to Sanders 306,957
to 244,273 as of early
Wednesday afternoon.
Moore said that although
Donald Trump is already
the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee, nearly
35 percent of Republican
voters cast their ballots for
“anyone but Trump, which
is a big issue for him.”
There were nearly 2.3
million eligible voters
in this year’s primary
election. That included
more than 100,000 new
voters registered in 2016,
according to the Secretary
of State’s Ofice. Many of
those voters were registered
as a result of the state’s new
automatic voter registration
system, which took effect
this year. Under the law,
people who are eligible to
vote are registered after
they obtain or renew their
driver’s licenses, permits
or identiication cards.
Oregon was the irst state
to enact an automatic voter
registration law.
no Democrat declared their
intent to run for Senate
District 29.
In
total,
Umatilla
County Democrats cast 189
write-in votes in the District
29 race and 92 votes in the
District 58 race.
Lindell said the identity
of the write-ins will be
counted in the coming days,
with the irst count posted
sometime next week.
Regardless of whether
Hansell
can
secure
cross-nomination, he will
face Independent Barbara
Dickerson of Milton-Free-
water in November.
With no candidate
clearing 50 percent in the
Pendleton City Council
at-large race, it will also go
to November.
Councilor Paul Chalmers
received 48.7 percent of
the vote, but second-place
inisher Jim Swearingen
and two other candidates
drew away enough votes to
force a runoff.
Even though Swearingen
previously said he no longer
wanted the seat, Lindell
said he and Chalmers
will go to that November
runoff because Swearingen
never submitted oficial
withdrawal forms for the
May election.
If Swearingen has
second thoughts about the
November election, Lindell
said he has until Sept. 2 to
withdraw from the runoff
race.
Reached for comment
Tuesday night, Swearingen
said he will spend the next
few days deciding whether
or not to campaign for the
seat.