96 Minutes of CPR and Man Survives!
(ABC 6 NEWS) — Earlier Thursday, on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, you saw a story about a Goodhue, Minnesota man who survived after first responders performed CPR on him for more than an hour and a half. ABC 6 News sat down with him as well Thursday to get more on his amazing story.
Goodhue only has about 800 residents. But in what many people would call a typical small midwestern town response, a handful of those residents banded together to literally take turns performing CPR on a man that most people would have simply given up on.
“I don’t remember going to Don’s, I don’t remember getting out of the car and I don’t remember blacking out…” said Howard Snitzer.
Five days later, Howard Snitzer of Goodhue, Minnesota woke up in the ICU at Mayo Clinic. Snitzer learned that he had suffered a massive heart attack outside of Don’s Foods in Goodhue. He also learned that first responders had performed CPR on him for more than an hour and a half.
“To go so long into CPR and resuscitating someone is, I think the previous record was like 45 minutes and they worked 96.”
Al Lodermeier, who owns the garage just across the street from where Snitzer collapsed, was one of the first people to start CPR. And he, along with about 20 others, kept performing CPR at the urging of a Mayo Clinic paramedic.
“Until he gives up or says enough is enough, we just keep going,” says Lodermeier. “And it was fortunate, we had a lot of help.”
Less than 50 days after his heart attack, Snitzer is doing just fine. Amazing considering the fact he heart wasn’t working and he had no pulse for 96 minutes.
“It seemed like there was nothing to work on really,” said Don Schulte of Don’s Foods. “Yet they just kept doing it and doing it and doing it. It’s like you’re not going to die on my watch…”
And Snitzer has everyone from Lodermeier to the Mayo Clinic paramedics to thank. Although thanks doesn’t even begin to sum it up.
“I love them. I love those people. What can I say?” says Snitzer. “It’s pretty overwhelming to be in a room full of people that are not going to walk away and give up on you. And I had nothing to do with it. It’s just one of those things. They’re all angles as far as I’m concerned…”
The woman you saw in the story is Howard Snitzer’s significant other, Tammy Ryan. In an even stranger twist to this story, her husband died from a heart attack six years ago and the same people who tried to save him back then, also worked on Snitzer this time.
