Key points from today’s guests:

Jon Cook, collapsed while jogging

• Jon’s story is so remarkable because nine out of 10 people who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital don’t survive, according to the American Heart Association.
• When Jon collapsed while jogging almost a year ago, he beat the odds because of the fast work of good Samaritans, including Sarissa Curry, who is certified in CPR.
• Sarissa’s actions helped save his life before he was taken to the hospital. He later was able to find her and thank her for her selfless act.

Sarrisa Curry, performed CPR on Jon

• Sarrisa is in the fitness industry, so she is trained in CPR. When she saw Jon struggling, she knew she had to step in and put her training to use.
• She had seen other unfortunate situations and wanted to step up quickly and help. It was very important to her to try to save his life.
• Sarrisa and Jon are now close friends and they hope this story inspires other people to get trained in CPR and help in an emergency.

Jennifer Williams, Ph. D., director of nursing practice, research & professional development, The University of Kansas Health System

• One of the things that her team is responsible for is all the CPR training -- for not only health care professionals across the whole system, but for the community as well.
• The team has trained probably around 10,000 people every year on how to make sure that they can do good quality CPR when the time comes.
• Jon’s story is one of everything possible going right at the right time and bystanders who were being heroes -- we know only about four in 10 times do people step up and actually perform CPR.
• The easiest way to become CPR certified is to reach out to the American Heart Association for CPR courses nearby.

Sarah Doyle, RN, education specialist, The University of Kansas Health System

• When you approach a person in distress, you want to check for responsiveness. So the first thing you can do is tap them or shout to see if they respond. And if you don't hear or hear anything, or see any body movements after a tap, you can call 911.
• After that, then you'll check for breathing so you can feel their face you can look for chest rise. If you don't see any breathing and they have not responded. That's when you want to initiate CPR.
• Find the center of the chest, use your dominant hand to place the heel of that on that part and then interlace your other hand or just put it on top.
• Lock your elbows and then you're just going to push down about two inches. You're going to push hard and you're going to push fast -- 100 to 120 beats a minute. Doing it to the song “Stayin’ Alive” can help.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection prevention & control, The University of Kansas Health System

• Active COVID patients in the Health System this week are at 20, which is up from 19 last week.
• Starting this week, anyone can order free COVID tests from the federal government. Go to COVIDTest.gov.
• It is vitally important to test if you are starting to have symptoms.
• Right now what we believe from talking with Kansas Department of Public Education is that most of the viral illnesses that are going around is COVID-19.

Morning Medical Update is on TV in October! The four-part series Cancer: Choices, Hope and Science will air on Tuesdays in October. In the Kansas City area, it’s on KCTV5 at 9:30 a.m. and in Topeka, it’s on WIVW at 9 a.m.

Wednesday, September 27 at 8 a.m. CT is the next Open Mics with Dr. Stites. Of all things we can do to improve our health, exercise has to be at the top of the list. But why is that? We'll share the science behind why the best medicine is sometimes hitting the gym.

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