When it comes to innovative life saving technology, the Glendale Fire Department has become a role model, not just in the state, but the entire country.

“Arizona and the fire department's participation in CCC-CCR (continuous chest compressions) techniques have made us role models for the rest of the country in the area of cardiac resuscitation,” said Deputy Fire Chief Resource Management Division Chuck Montgomery.

On Sept. 25 Montgomery spoke at a national conference in Orlando, Florida sponsored by the Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) on the recent changes in CPR and its implementation in the State of Arizona.

Deputy Fire Chief Resource Management Division Chuck Montgomery, reads about the latest book by CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta which features a story about an incident that occurred in Glendale where a man’s life was saved because of a technique called CCC (continuous chest compressions).

“I was invited to speak by Arizona State Medical Director Ben Bobrow in his place,” Montgomery said. “I made a presentation to fire chiefs from across the United States and Canada on the dramatic results taking place in Arizona, specifically in Glendale, with the use of CCC-CCR. I presented a case where a Phoenix fire captain was successfully resuscitated at the scene of a Glendale apartment fire with the use of CCC.”

With less emphasis on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and changing our focus to CCC, Montgomery said, survival rates have started sky rocketing.

“From decades of 1 to 2 percent successful resuscitation rates, we are in the high teens of percentage of survivability. That is based on the history we have now of four years of accurate record keeping,” Montgomery said. “Tracking is through the SHARE Program. A key component is to closely track the results of agencies using CCC-CCR. The SHARE initiative also promotes public awareness and public education.”

Montgomery said that success stories from incidents occurring in Glendale have been written up in numerous national magazines and publications including a new book by CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in his new book, “Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Life Against All Odds.”

During the incident sited in Gupta's book, Mike Mertz, 59, a Glendale school bus driver, was driving his silver Saturn home from work on Wednesday afternoon in March 2008 when he went into cardiac arrest and with his foot on the accelerator the car became stuck between a tree and a stucco wall at his townhome complex.

A UPS driver, Corey Ash, was making deliveries when he heard the engine noise. He ran over, reached across Mertz' slumped body, turned off the car and pulled him from the vehicle and immediately called 911 and started CPR that he had learned in a National Guard exercise two months earlier.

Less than a minute later, Ash heard the siren coming from an engine from Station 154 and Firefighter Ruben Florez thumped an urgent rhythm on Mertz' chest and 200 compressions over two minutes before a medic stepped in an delivered an electric shock from a defibrillator. After 600 chest compressions and three electric shocks, a weak pulse returned.

“At no point was mouth-to-mouth resuscitation performed, and at no point did Mike Mertz get a breath,” Gupta said in his book. “Surprisingly, that may be the real reason he survived. In reality, survival from cardiac arrest outside the hospital is rare. In 2005, cities around Arizona began doing something new.”

Not only is the fire department using the new CCC-CPR technique, but they are offering free classes to the public. The next class is from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 19 at Midwestern University, 19555 N. 59th Ave.

To register, so to the Web site www.azshare.gov.

Reach the reporter at 623-847-4615.