Pott has even had Purdue students enroll because a Purdue professor offered extra credit for learning the lifesaving procedure. CPR maintains blood flow to the heart and sustains the victim until defibrillation can be administered. When the heart goes into cardiac arrest, the heart's electrical impulses become chaotic, creating an irregular heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation. The irregular beating causes the heart to stop suddenly. The victims lose consciousness, stop normal breathing and lose pulse and blood pressure.
Defibrillation provides an electric shock to the heart to interrupt the chaos.
Brain death starts to occur in four to six minutes if CPR isn't administered. Survival is linked to the amount of time until defibrillation, according to the American Heart Association. Odds of survival drop 7 percent to 10 percent with every minute of delay. Pott and his buddy worked on the man for about seven minutes while the paramedics navigated Ross-Ade Stadium. Few resuscitation attempts are successful after 10 minutes.