This year marks the 50th anniversary of traditional mouth-to-mouth cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It continues to be the preferred method for saving the lives of children and toddlers, as well as victims who have been unconscious for unknown periods of time. But about five years ago, doctors in Arizona began promoting hands-only CPR which eliminates mouth-to-mouth contact but retains chest compressions to keep blood flowing to the brain to keep it alive.

Through a series of happenstance events--including a call to a victim who was receiving proper CPR, but on a soft bed--Teri Giordano, NREMT-P at Cherokee Tribal EMS (NC), realized she wanted to do more to promote CPR to residents in her area.

"I remember leaving that call very frustrated," she says. "I wondered what could have happened if everything had been done correctly."

Giordano also relates a discussion she had with a friend who wanted to do more to promote stroke awareness, and who had a life-changing encounter with a firefighter in San Francisco who was promoting CPR at a storefront event in that city last year. Compounded with exposure to several articles about other agencies hosting CPR training events, Giordano realized residents in her area needed CPR training just as much.

"I figured I had enough signs that I was supposed to start something, and could incorporate stroke awareness," she says. "I realized we needed to do something, and we needed to do it now."

As such, she--along with four other healthcare professionals, including Robin Jones, RN, stroke center coordinator at Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville, NC; Carolyn Crook, MS, director of heart disease and stroke prevention for Mountain Area Health Education Center; Frank Castelblanco, RN, director of cardiac emergencies at Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville, NC; and Dana Triplett, RN, Code STEMI Coordinator at Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville, NC--organized MINUTES MATTER.

The grassroots campaign is focused on educating residents in western North Carolina how to perform hands-only CPR, as well as how to recognize a stroke (utilizing ACT Fast) and the importance of call 9-1-1 promptly.

"Minutes really do matter. That's how we came up with the name for our organization," says Giordano. "With traditional CPR, people are concerned about properly checking pulse and breathing, and they may be hesitant to put their mouth on a stranger's mouth. With hands-only CPR and sudden collapse victims, you keep blood circulating and flowing to the brain to keep it alive. If you initiate CPR right away, it can make a difference."