Coaching callers through CPR is part of daily routine for emergency dispatchers

Coaching callers through CPR is part of daily routine for emergency dispatchers

Sarah Szilagy

The Columbus Dispatch

After getting an incident address and callback number, emergency medical dispatchers ask two questions about a person in distress: “are they conscious?” and “are they breathing?”

If the answer to both is no, the person might be in cardiac arrest — and dispatchers advise callers that someone must begin CPR. A person has several minutes before they suffer irreversible organ damage said Lt. Sheldon Combs, a 31-year member of the Columbus Division of Fire and communications liaison.

“The body starts dying off after a certain point of lack of oxygen,” he said.

'Thank you for my blessed life': Heart attack survivor searching for bystander whose CPR helped save her life

That point is at about six minutes, Combs said. Yet it takes an average of eight minutes for emergency medical services to arrive in Columbus.

In 2015, more than 350,000 people experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest — with about a 10% survival rate to hospital discharge, according to the American Heart Association. In its 2020 updated report on heart disease and stroke statistics, the association found that when a bystander performed CPR, the survival rate to hospital discharge increased by about a third to 13.6%.

Getting bystanders to perform CPR is what dispatchers are trained to do — even if it means coaching a caller who has never been trained. Combs said all dispatchers are trained firefighters, meaning they have and maintain their CPR certification. It also means they’ve likely performed CPR while out in the field.

When a caller needs talking through administering CPR, that street training “kicks in," Combs said.

“The first thing you do is you tell them to put their hands on the center of the chest … one down, clasp the other, start pushing down hard and fast,” Combs said.

Dispatchers use a metronome to tell the caller when to press down at a steady rate. They also have a map of nearby fire trucks and ambulances to let the caller know when paramedics will arrive.

Columbus firefighter and dispatcher trainer Carl Lawless said one of the most important things dispatchers can do is stay calm and persistent. “It can be very chaotic, it can be very emotional,” said Lawless, who has been trained to take emergency calls since 2006. 

“It can be difficult to get somebody’s attention to try to get them to do what you want them to do.” Both Lawless and Combs said the main priority is to get “control” of the situation. In Lawless’ experience, repeating directions and maintaining a calm voice can typically get most frantic callers to calm down and follow directions. 

Despite dispatchers being trained to provide CPR assistance over the phone, less than half of people who have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive bystander CPR in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association.

Lawless and Combs said receiving CPR training and maintaining that certification — which expires every two years — can help increase the number of bystanders who step in to help in emergencies. 

A dispatcher's CPR instructions can also increase the number of bystanders willing to perform it; implementing a training program for dispatchers about coaching callers through CPR in one community nearly doubled the number of bystanders who performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive, according to a 2019 study by researchers at the University of Singapore. 

When someone calls about a person in cardiac arrest, dispatchers often don’t find out if the instructions they give end up saving that person's life. A dispatcher’s job is done the moment paramedics arrive. 

Occasionally, someone who survived will track down the dispatcher who responded to their call. Combs hasn't been contacted by a survivor, but he remembers one dispatcher who walked a woman through CPR when her brother was in cardiac arrest. 

By the time paramedics arrived, her brother's pulse had returned. The survivor told the dispatcher that early CPR saved his life. In Combs’ experience, he said dealing with difficult calls as a dispatcher is similar to dealing with difficult runs as a firefighter. “You try to go on to the next call and not dwell on (it),” Combs said. “You just try to keep going and rolling on.” sszilagy@gannett.com @sszilagy CPR training and resources: 

American Red Cross CPR Columbus class locator: Information available for online and in-person classes at www.columbus.gov/public-safety/fire/programs-and-... Prices vary. You can also search for Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton. Columbus fire courses for the public: Offers American Heart Association (AHA)-certified CPR, first aid and automated external defibrillator (AED) training. All classes are $40 except for pediatric course, which is $60. All classes held at: Columbus Fire Training Academy, 3639 Parsons Ave. For more information, go to www.columbus.gov/public-safety/fire/programs-and-... or call 614-645-6360. 

Rapid response training: Offers in-person AHA-certified CPR/AED training, Class is $50, recertification every two years is $50. All classes held at 1350 W. Fifth Avenue, Suite 116, in Columbus. For more information, go to www.columbus.gov/public-safety/fire/programs-and-... or call 614-949-9178 

American Heart Association CPR training course locator: Offers course guide at cpr.heart.org/en/course-catalog-search. PulsePoint Respond app: Connected to Columbus emergency call centers to alert users when CPR is needed in a nearby public place. Provides map of nearby AEDs. Available for Apple and Android devices. For more information, go to www.columbus.gov/public-safety/fire/programs-and-...