If her husband hadn’t been there, Cheryl Jordan Winston might not have made it.
“In September of 2020 I collapsed on my bedroom floor, had no pulse,” said Winston. “My husband fortunately knew CPR … and I was successfully resuscitated. I then spent about two weeks in the hospital recovering. My husband started CPR within the first 90 seconds, and both the doctors and EMT basically told him that if he didn’t start CPR, then I wouldn’t have survived.”
Winston had experienced a sudden cardiac arrest, which, according to the American Heart Association, is a sudden stop of the heart due to an “electrical malfunction … that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia).” A heart attack is not the same, as it occurs when there’s a “blockage” in an artery. Having a heart attack, however, can lead to sudden cardiac arrest by “disrupt(ing) the heart’s rhythm.”
In Winston’s case, there were no warning signs. Hospital personnel had to figure out after the event what had caused it.
“I did have a ventricular fibrillation, which is an arrhythmia in the bottom half of your heart. Usually when people have those, it causes your heart to stop,” said Winston. “But I don’t have any of the genetic markers that are precursors for that. I don’t have any blockage. So it’s just kind of an unknown electrical misfire of my heart.”
Winston was placed in a medically induced coma for three days for her organs to heal, and spent time afterwards in the hospital recovering. She has not had a cardiac event since and was one of the trial patients for Medtronic’s Aurora EV-ICD, an implanted device that monitors her heart and corrects its beat. The device is now FDA-approved and available for purchase.
When someone collapses in a cardiac event, a bystander providing CPR, as Winston’s husband did, can make the difference between life and death. But there are disparities regarding who receives bystander CPR and who has the training to perform CPR. In a 2022 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that Black and Hispanic people in the U.S. were less likely than their white counterparts to be treated with bystander CPR when they experienced a cardiac event outside a hospital setting.
The disparity in receiving bystander CPR for Black Americans is exacerbated by their heart health disparities.
“Broadly speaking, what we see in the data in the United States as a whole (and) in Minnesota is that African-American folks die of heart disease at younger ages than the national average,” said Jim Peacock, Ph.D., an epidemiologist who supervises the Cardiovascular Health Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health.
Additionally, research from the Smidt Heart Institute shows that African-Americans were twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac arrest than their white peers and were, on average, six years younger than white people when they went through that cardiac arrest.
In terms of receiving CPR, however, racial disparities don’t just exist in public spaces. Even in their own homes, the New England Journal study showed that Black and Hispanic people were less likely to receive bystander CPR, indicating a potential lack of training or comfort performing the process.
Steps have been taken to make CPR training more accessible to the wider public. The American Heart Association’s Be the Beat program, housed online, links to freely available videos that teach people to perform hands-only CPR and use automated external defibrillators.
“A lot of people have smartphones now. You can look up CPR on the AHA (American Heart Association) website and get a quick course on how to do CPR,” said Dr. Robin Germany, a cardiologist and board member of the American Heart Association in Minnesota.
The Association has also set up kiosks in various airports where passers-by can practice or learn how to do chest compressions for CPR. The Association in Minnesota confirmed via email that a kiosk like this will be set up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It is also in the process of formalizing agreements with various faith organizations in Minnesota, including New Creation Baptist Church, regarding CPR programs.
“(CPR is) something that I encourage family members for my own patients to learn how to do,” said Dr. Germany. “Even with very simple tools, you can help save a life.”
Deanna Pistono
Deanna Pistono is MinnPost’s Race & Health Equity fellow. Follow her on Twitter @deannapistono or email her at dpistono@minnpost.com.
