Top Story: A Woodbury man's race to survive after cardiac arrest
Dr. Demetris Yannopoulos in the Department of Medicine was interviewed live on MPR News with Angela Davis about cardiac arrest and CPR.
“Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops, and no blood circulates around the body. When the blood stops moving, the brain doesn't get oxygen. So when the heart stops, we have minutes to respond and restart it,” said Dr. Yannopoulos, who is also the director of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Center for Resuscitation Medicine. “Every minute we don’t do anything about it, the chance of survival drops by 10%. If no one starts CPR within 10 minutes, the chance of recovery is almost zero.”