Statistics show that girls and communities of color are less more likely to undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation after cardiac arrest. Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is the director of emergency medical services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and co-founder of Akoma United, a corporation with a mission to avoid wasting lives, especially in communities of color, and dedicated to empowering on a regular basis people to profit from CPR. It explains why this is vital and reminds us that there isn’t any liability when performing CPR. Listen to the episode or read it transcription.
Wearing many hats
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah grew up throughout the world. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky, then moved to New Hampshire in southwestern Africa for many of her highschool profession, then to Boston, after which to the University of Rochester for her bachelor’s degree. She says she was one of those children who knew what she desired to change into at the age of 7: “I always wanted to become a doctor.”
Despite her classmates’ disturbing and contradictory predictions that she would get into medical school simply because she was black, or not get into medical school in any respect because she was black, Owusu-Ansah was accepted to the University of Chicago.
She says she answered the phone and couldn’t imagine it. “Nothing was electronic back then,” he says. “I was waiting for the letter!”
From there, Owusu-Ansah went to Children’s National in Washington, D.C. for her pediatrics residency. She earned a degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University over the summer. After her internship, Owusu-Ansah was a pediatrician in the emergency department. She liked it a lot that she pursued a fellowship at Johns Hopkins in pediatric emergency medicine.
Meanwhile, Owusu-Ansah’s husband was a firefighter-paramedic. Intrigued by the work he did, Owusu-Ansah interned in emergency care. She stated that in the field of emergency medicine, her area of specialization was missing, which was pediatric emergency medicine.
“Most emergency physicians focus on adults,” Owusu-Ansah says.
Called to do more
“I am a person of faith,” says Owusu-Ansah. “And in November 2022, I had an epiphany that I needed to learn more about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). And I’m the queen of cold calling, so I made a decision to email the NFL’s medical director. Owusu-Ansah said the NFL needs bystander CPR training and that she may also help.
A couple of months later, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. This incident raised awareness of the need for bystander training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and placed the issue in the national highlight.
Owusu-Ansah set to work and in at some point she organized cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for 105 footballers. She took her program to high schools and on one other day trained 500 Division I athletes.
Owusu-Ansah says this could not be possible without the support of the community.
“The reason I’m so passionate about this is because of the research,” he says. “Communities of color are less more likely to receive CPR. Women perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation less often. We knew about these disparities, but we didn’t do much to vary them.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation involves restarting the heart and lungs to oxygenate the brain and get it working again. The heart stops for a variety of reasons, Owusu-Ansah says. Each cell runs on electricity. He compares the stopping of the heart to when the lights flash in the house. They may come back on or remain off if power is just not restored and dealing.
“It’s really important that everyone learns how to perform CPR,” Owusu-Ansah says. Statistics say that 80 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home, so that you’re more likely to do that to someone you recognize and love.
Owusu-Ansah says time is the key to surviving cardiac arrest. Three minutes after brain death is absolutely all a person has. If you wait until EMS arrives, the person will likely not survive. “The sooner someone starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the greater the likelihood of survival. It is not doctors or trauma surgeons who will save them, but ordinary people,” says Owusu-Ansah.
Empowering on a regular basis people
Owusu-Ansah says community support is paramount for initiatives like bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“Integration with the community is the key. Especially in underserved communities of color, immigrant communities. Build trust to gain people’s support,” he says.
Owusu-Ansah co-founded Akoma United for this express purpose. The organization’s mission is to empower people to assist save the lives of all, especially in communities of color. They provide training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, in addition to stopping bleeding and other ways bystanders may also help in an emergency.
“The vision is that if someone goes down in cardiac arrest, there will be someone there to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” Owusu-Ansah says. “We all have the potential to do good. People naturally want to do good. They want to help others. You just have to guide them.”
One obstacle that should be overcome is people’s fear of making the situation worse, but Owusu-Ansah reminds communities that the person helping is just not responsible and something is best than nothing. “Every life is worth saving,” he says.
