Each day more than one-thousand people receive CPR from bystanders, and less than ten-percent survive. But two brothers set out to change those numbers.
John and Christopher Di Capua wanted to improve the number of lives saved with CPR. So, they did what any inventive and forward-thinking high student would do—they built a machine that replaces the need for direct mouth-to-mouth.
Based on John’s research, he discovered that people don’t much like putting their mouth’s on someone else’s mouth, and that’s one of the reasons survival is so low for cardiac arrest victims outside of a hospital.
In a team effort, and over a matter of several years, the Di Capua brothers designed and built an automatic ventilation machine.
They demonstrated how to use the equipment to untrained people, and found that most could do it.
It’s called an AVAC, Automatic Ventilation with Assisted Compressions, and the price tag is under $150.
The brothers’ invention earned them high praise at the Intel Science Talent Search, a patent, and perhaps a name in medical history.
Check out this video. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/02/brothers-medical-device-heart-failure/12040335/
