Rapid CPR saves life of Penn physician who studies heart disease

Rapid CPR saves life of Penn physician who studies heart disease

When Kevin Volpp slumped forward at dinner, Drexel University squash coach John White started chest compressions within seconds.

Kevin Volpp, who studies heart disease and health policy at Penn Medicine, survived a sudden cardiac arrest thanks to prompt CPR. Daughters Daphne (left), Anna, and Thea, and wife Marjorie (right) were with him in July upon his discharge from a Cincinnati hospital.Read moreCourtesy of Volpp family

A day after his heart stopped beating, causing him to black out and fall sideways into the arms of a dinner companion, Kevin Volpp was alive and alert, peppering his doctors with questions.

He knew better than most that his odds had been grim. A prominent health-policy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, Volpp had coauthored 150 papers on the very topic that landed him in a Cincinnati hospital bed: heart disease.

So when cardiologist David M. Harris told Volpp he must have received prompt, high-quality CPR before being taken to the hospital July 9, the bedridden researcher wanted proof.

“How do you know I received high-quality CPR?” Volpp asked.

“Because,” his doctor replied, “I’m talking to you 24 hours after the event.”

Volpp, 54, shared his story of survival at an American Heart Association conference Monday, in hopes that more people who experience a sudden cardiac arrest will fare as well as he did.

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The rapid CPR — performed by Drexel University squash coach John White, who had joined Volpp in Cincinnati to watch his daughter play in a tournament — was just one of many factors contributing to the happy ending. Also essential was the fast action by paramedics, who were on the scene in five minutes with a defibrillator, followed by quick action at the hospital to address the root cause: a 99% blockage in one of Volpp’s coronary arteries.

In addition, Volpp’s physicians said, he benefited from preventive measures that were years in the making.

The director of Penn’s Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Volpp has spent much of his career studying strategies to promote heart-healthy behaviors, and he also practices them himself. He eats a balanced diet, does not smoke, and exercises regularly.

In the four months leading up to his cardiac arrest, he ramped up his activity level considerably, training with daughter Anna for an Ironman 70.3 triathlon (also called a half Ironman, with a 1.2 mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run).

The pair successfully completed a shorter triathlon in June, and were looking forward to the half Ironman in late July.

“I was probably in the best shape I’d been in since I was 25 years old,” he said.

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