By Liz Freeman
Naples Daily News
Copyright 2007 Collier County Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
COLLIER, Fla. — Dr. Robert Tober will have an audience he never imagined to demonstrate a better way to save people suffering from cardiac arrest, an approach he developed that has propelled Collier County to have a phenomenal “save rate” of 37 percent.
Tober was in New York on Monday to tape a television segment for “Good Morning America,” where he discusses his “pit-crew concept” toward cardiac arrest and the value of chest compressions over mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
The segment is scheduled to air Thursday morning. “Good Morning America” is on ABC starting at 7 a.m. weekdays. Program officials couldn’t be reached for details about a time slot for Tober’s segment.
As medical director of Collier County’s EMS, Tober designed a system whereby each person on an EMS team in the field has a specific task in responding to a patient in cardiac arrest, similar to how a pit crew in a NASCAR event has a specific job to save time to get the race car back on the track.
With heart attack patients, every second counts in maintaining a patient’s blood flow and to save his or her life.
Tober developed the approach for EMS in 2004, coupled with refining a chest-compression-only approach for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as opposed to a combination of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth efforts that is promoted by the American Heart Association.
The compressions-only approach is more effective and eliminates the apprehension of strangers performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on strangers, Tober said.
“We went against the American Heart Association’s guidelines,” he said.
Doing so brought great results for Collier’s EMS to achieve a 37 percent cardiac arrest “save rate,” that is far above the national average of 6 percent to 10 percent.
Tober said he didn’t know how “Good Morning America” learned of EMS’ achievements. Likewise, he expressed no nervousness about the program taping.
“I’m kind of excited because we have worked so desperately hard for this (cardiac save) program,” he said.
For the program, he will demonstrate the chest-compression-only approach and show the audience how to use an AutoPulse, a device that helps improve blood flow.
In 2004, Collier’s EMS was the first paramedic group in the state to purchase AutoPulse machines. In 2005, Collier’s EMS was the first in the nation to equip ambulances with Audicor systems, a device that records heart sounds.