Dr. White's interest in ambulances dates back to his childhood. He started collecting much smaller toy ambulances. That fueled his interest in the real thing. "I was impressed with the beauty of the vehicles," he tells The Huffington Post. "I'd track them. I'd photograph them. I'd write to the companies. When I was a kid, 12 years old, I would pencil a letter asking for literature on these vehicles." That boyhood fascination never faded. Instead, it morphed into a career devoted to emergency medicine, especially to improving the care and survival of people who have sudden cardiac arrest.

As we reported a few years back, Dr. White led the (ahem) charge for putting automated external defibrillators in every police car in Rochester, Minnesota, in addition to ambulances and fire trucks. That change has meant faster access to life-saving defibrillation for many patients, since police are often the first to respond to 911 calls. As a result of those efforts, Rochester is the place to be if you're going to have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Survival rates, The Huffington Post reports, are 63 percent versus the national average of 38 percent. Read the rest of the story.
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This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.

Below is a story about a man who survived 96 minutes of CPR, thanks to countless friends and the Mayo Clinic Air Transport team who relied on Dr. White's emergency expertise from a distance. The report first aired in 2011.

Watch: Marathon CPR saves a life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkXZLfd8f2E
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (4:26) is in the downloads.

The post In the Loop: Childhood fascination with ambulances leads to saving lives appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Every day more than a thousand people in the United States experience sudden cardiac arrest and it kills several hundred thousand people every year. On the next Mayo Clinic Radio, Saturday, June 14, at 9 am CT, Roger White, M.D., will join us to discuss what happens to your heart during cardiac arrest. What should you do to help until an ambulance arrives? Where can you learn CPR? How do you use an automatic external defibrillator? We'll find out the answers to these questions and more on the next program. Join us!

Myth or Fact:  Perform CPR before you use an AED when you suspect someone is having a cardiac arrest.

To hear the program LIVE on Saturday, click here.
Follow #MayoClinicRadio and tweet your questions.
Mayo Clinic Radio is available on iHeart Radio.

Listen to this week’s Medical News Headlines: News Segment 2 June 15, 2014 (right click MP3)  

Mayo Clinic Radio is a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic. The show is taped for rebroadcast by some affiliates.

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The post MAYO CLINIC RADIO appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Every day more than a thousand people in the United States experience sudden cardiac arrest and it kills several hundred thousand people every year. On the next Mayo Clinic Radio, Saturday, June 14, at 9 am CT, Roger White, M.D., will join us to discuss what happens to your heart during cardiac arrest.  What should you do to help until an ambulance arrives?  Where can you learn CPR?  How do you use an automatic external defibrillator? We'll find out the answers to these questions and more on the next program.  Join us!

Myth or Fact:  Perform CPR before you use an AED when you suspect someone is having a cardiac arrest.

For the transcript of the #SummerHealth Twitter chat, click here.

Follow #MayoClinicRadio and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is available on iHeart Radio.

Mayo Clinic Radio is a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic. The show is taped for rebroadcast by some affiliates.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Cardiac Arrest appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.