I Love Palm Beach
I Love Palm Beach
A Second Chance at Life and the Mission to Teach CPR, Meet Ed Kosiec
Imagine collapsing during a quick lunch run, your heart suddenly betraying you. That's exactly what happened to Ed Kosiec, whose story of survival is nothing short of miraculous, thanks to the quick actions of a CPR-trained high school student. Ed joins us to recount his life-altering experience and how it led him to launch Every Second Counts CPR, his non-profit aimed at spreading the gospel of this essential skill. He breaks down CPR myths with the finesse of a seasoned educator and passionately argues for mandatory CPR training, all in a bid to turn everyday folks into potential heroes. Moreover, Ed's tale isn't just about survival; it's a call to action—a reminder of the power of presence and preparedness in the face of heart-stopping moments.
As we bask in the warmth of South Florida, where the sun kisses the horizon and shorts are year-round attire, we delve into the region's charm beyond the cliché of tourist traps. From the picturesque lighthouse at Jupiter Beach to the vibrant growth of the Palm Beach community, there's an unmistakable pulse here—one that beats to the rhythm of "Staying Alive," quite literally. We extend an olive branch to our listeners, inviting you to join in the lifesaving skill by enrolling in a local CPR class. It's not just about sunny days and balmy nights; it's about equipping yourselves with the knowledge to keep those days coming for someone else. So, sunscreen in one hand and a sense of purpose in the other, let’s embrace the beauty of life in all its facets.
Hi everybody. This is Rebecca Giacobo and Stephanie Coe, my partner, and we're here with. I Love Palm Beach and we have a really interesting episode today. We have Ed Kosciak. I just said it wrong. I said it right and I said it wrong. Could you please correct me, Ed?
Speaker 2:It's Ed.
Speaker 1:Kosciak Ed Kosciak. I don't know why I want to mangle that, that's fine, it's okay. Ed has an interesting story and we'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 2:Sure, I guess I'll go back from where it started. March 12, 2019, I was at Chick-fil-A restaurant having lunch with my wife. Everything was fine and I collapsed. I went into cardiac arrest. My heart stopped, no pulse. I was on the ground, clinically dead, and a young girl you can see in the back picture right there is my Sarah, who was cooking french fries in the kitchen Came out and new set CPR because she went to the Boynt Beach High School Medical Program Came out and started CPR and did it all by herself. I was fortunate to have the fireman show up just in time to shock my heart back in the rhythm and I came back to life. So it sparked me to start a non-profit every second count CPR, where I go out and teach people CPR and spread some cardiac awareness and let people know the importance of knowing CPR can make a difference, as CPR does save lives and I am living proof that it does work.
Speaker 3:So you said that was I'm sorry. What year was that?
Speaker 2:March 12, 2019. Okay.
Speaker 3:So pretty recently. And then what kind of events? I mean? You said that you teach classes on it all. How often is it? How can people get involved with it?
Speaker 2:They can go to my website everysecondcountscprorg. And 2021. After this happened, I was involved with the Florida State Law to pass a law where all kids have to know CPR before graduation. That was a great big win for a lot of hard advocates in the state of Florida. So now every kid that graduates should have an hour instruction of knowing what to do before they leave school. Three, eights an army of lifesavers that's the goal that everyone knows how to do CPR as a young adult.
Speaker 2:That sparked me to do the great 48 CPR tour, where I went across the nation and taught CPR in every single state and gave away CPR kits just to spread that message. I now also do a big event in Washington DC the first week in June called the National CPR AED Awareness Rally, where I bring hard advocates and people across the nation together to spread CPR awareness at our nation's capital and hopefully bring new laws and new attention to the crisis of sudden cardiac arrest and how more people need to know CPR and more people can live. And just recently I just got done with a new event I did in New York City October 1st, which was you Can Save a Life in a New York Minute. I was at Times Square, hanging out with a whole bunch of crazy people out there. We had a blast and we spread CPR awareness at Father Duffy Square. I made a lot of new friends in New York City and Times Square, so it was a great event. I'm looking forward to doing that again every year too, in the future.
Speaker 1:Well, not to ask a silly question. Sorry, Stephanie, didn't mean to interrupt. Let's explain to the listeners exactly what CPR is, what it takes to learn it. Everybody knows CPR, but what is it exactly? What is it meant to do?
Speaker 2:So there's always a disconnect when people hear heart attack or cardiac arrest. There's total different things going on there. Heart attack is a plumbing issue where you have an artery issue. You're plunging that pump in blood. But I can still speak to you. I can say hey, stephanie, please go call the ambulance, something's wrong. A cardiac arrest is electrical. It's like your heart completely stops, like a light switch turning off from light to dark. Your heart stops. You have 10 minutes to live.
Speaker 2:Somebody somewhere better know CPR, know how to do compressions, how to use an AED, because the threshold on average person is 10 minutes. So we lose a minute of life every minute that goes by. So that's why 10 minutes is usually the number where most people pass away. So it's critical that bystander CPR is done immediately from everybody and everyone. So that's the goal is to. I can teach somebody bystander CPR in about a half hour. You don't have to sit in a four hour class to be certified, unless you need it for your job or you just wanna have that extra knowledge. But the majority of a bystander and average person just needs to know the basics of what to do. And when that person knows what to do, they're gonna give that person 70, 80% chance of a survival rate and it's huge. So we can change the stats of hopefully more people surviving a cardiac arrest when it happens.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and I'm sure in these classes you get a lot of misconceptions and questions about it all. What is one of the top misconceptions that you can correct for our listeners?
Speaker 2:Great question. The two questions I'm gonna tell you about the bad is first, I'm gonna hurt you. I'm afraid to touch that individual on the ground because I'm gonna hurt them. Talking from experience of being a cardiac arrester, you cannot hurt you because you're clinically dead. You are not there, there is no heartbeat or no pulse. You're at the mercy of whatever happens. So hurting somebody is not gonna happen because you might hurt somebody by hurting their ribs or crack ribs.
Speaker 2:I had hurt ribs for a good three months but my girl, sarah my angel, I call her did quality CPR the right way compressions two inches deep, 120 compressions per minute. So, as my folks understand, you can't hurt. And when you see that person, imagine that is your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your cousin and they need help. Somebody needs to jump in. My big motto is be the help, don't wait for the help. The second question that I always get is well, I'm afraid that I might be getting sued if I touch that person. We have good Samaritan Act laws in the nation where not one person has ever been sued for doing the right things for the right reasons. So I like to get those two when we create a society where people don't worry about hurt people and we're not getting sued, I think more people will understand that it's okay to jump in when you see an emergency.
Speaker 3:That's a great message to spread with people. As far as actually performing the CPR, I mean, I know that you said that it takes probably about 30 minutes to explain to people. Is mouth to mouth still part of the CPR procedure, or how can you give us a brief overview?
Speaker 2:Okay. So high quality CPR is 30 compressions to breaths Okay, and that's when you get a certification, and that's that's being doing CPR at its best, which our health care professionals, our paramedics and nurses know how to do. But the bystander CPR and American Heart came out with this 10 years ago that your two hands are just as good as job as doing 30 compresses to breaths. Sarah, who saved my life, use hands only compressions. She never blew in my mouth at all. So what we're doing there is pumping blood and oxygen through the body and keeping the vitals alive and going in your body. We need an AED. That's why we're in such a big. We're trying to really try to get more AEDs in a publish, because the AED is what brings the heart back. Okay, and AED is like a chart, like your car, your battery, your body car won't start. You need a charge. Your heart needs a charge because your heart is stopped. There's a misconception. When you walk into, I don't care where you go and you see an AED which does everyone know what AED stands for.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Okay. And AED means automatic external defibrillator. You see them in hospitals, you see them in airports, you see them in publics as now you see them in every public. You see them in most any governmental building. You start to see more of them and we want to see them. But when you see a fire extinguisher, you see an AED, because that's the ticket of bringing your heart back. Compressions won't bring your heart back, but it's going to keep your vitals going. We need those AEDs to charge.
Speaker 2:And those AEDs are for you, stephanie, they're for you Rebecca, they're for anybody who sees them. And you see, it's not just for that medical professional, it's for the everyday person to grab that thing off the wall and just put the pads on the person's chest when they're. It is so simple. I mean, a five-year-old can do it because they talk to it. They tell you when you open up the case what to do. They show you on the pads where to put the pads on a person's individual body. It's simple. But people are afraid and educated because they don't understand how it works. But it is simple, it's the best life-saving device we have to save a person's life.
Speaker 2:I am actually very saddened because it was a story over the weekend out in San Francisco where a guy went down in Golden Gate Park and his friend ran to a museum local close by which was 30 seconds away, went in there. The employee would not give them the AED because they had to ask the supervisor. It was just a communication breakdown from the employee to the supervisor. If we have AEDs, we have to use them, so as a survivor. I hear stories like this over and over and it just bothers me that people don't understand the urgency that when someone's down, they don't have much time, so having people that don't know what they're doing. We just need a better way to get the word out to the public of that. An AED saves lives, cpr saves lives and it's an ongoing battle that myself and many other hard advocates hit the pavement every day and try to tell people about. And thank you again for being on this podcast, because more information getting out to the public is better, so thank you for that.
Speaker 3:Of course. Thank you for coming on. So did Sarah use the defibrillator on you, or was that with the paramedics when they came?
Speaker 2:No, I was at Chick-fil-A at Boyd Beach Boulevard. I think I sent you my video At that time. There was probably 30 to 40 people in that Chick-fil-A and not one person helped me. Sarah, she knew what she was doing and she was at healthcare. Well, she was in school for medical, so she knew CPR. She knew I was in V-Fib.
Speaker 2:There was no AED at that Chick-fil-A, but she knew if you have no AED, all you can do is call 911. So you know the paramedics and firemen no wait, because they do have the AED. She knew just to continue to do CPR and questions only with her two hands and that's what she did for a good four or five minutes straight. Firemen got there, by the grace of God, and these are out of hospital. Cardiac arrest were even tougher to survive because of the situation no AED and nobody really stepped in and do it. I was blessed with having Sarah jumping in and the firemen getting in time to shock my heart back in the rhythm. That is usually not the case and but now I can tell you, since that happened, that Chick-fil-A has been trained and they do have an AED in that store.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I think it also goes to speak to our area where we live in. A lot of people live maybe in more rural parts of the US where they don't have access to emergency professionals and paramedics being able to show up that quickly. Can you speak a little bit Because a lot of people that listen to our podcast they want to know the pros and cons of moving to the Palm Beach area and you know if you could speak a little bit to your personal experience dealing with paramedics and first responders across our county?
Speaker 2:Well, we're very fortunate Palm Beach County. We have some of the best response time and the national response time in the United States is eight to 12 minutes, which is a big deal. So if cardiac arrest the threshold is 10 minutes, that means somebody in the meantime has to do something. We're lucky, I guess. If fortunate to firemen, they will be there, and the policemen too. Our policemen also have AEDs and are trained in CPR as well, so we're lucky in that way.
Speaker 2:So, being those rural areas, like you asked, that is a struggle. There's different things going on. Where there's drones bringing AEDs to those rural areas, believe it or not, there's a whole thing. This guy came up, you call for an AED and they're going to get a drone and it'll drop it off at your location. But still, time is of the essence. I mean that's why our big push is bystander CPR. We know the professionals will do the job, we'll get there. It's the critical time before. We're just not seeing people engaging and wanting to do anything. It really breaks my heart because I was lucky and fortunate to have that bystander jump in, but a lot of people don't.
Speaker 3:So you've given instructions on the entire process so far, except for one specific thing. You said two inches, so I'm assuming that's two inches deep onto the chest.
Speaker 2:Two inches deep, center of the chest, to the song Staying Alive. I think everyone knows that song, staying Alive. The Bee Gees never understood or ever thought in a million years that song would be so critical in saving lives. But all our hearts, rebecca, stephanie, all our hearts beat at 100 to 120 beats per minute. That song is 100 to 120 beats per minute and the name Staying Alive just makes sense.
Speaker 2:So two hands center of the chest, staying Alive. That's all you needed to keep it simple and people will understand how to do it. Don't overthink it. Do I get 30 compressions? Two breaths, do I get two compressions?
Speaker 2:It's been changed so many times through the history of CPR, but we want more and more people to engage and do just help, just jump in and help. There's no mouth to mouth. We don't have to worry about catching a disease because in this day and age, do you think anyone is going to put a mouth on a stranger? They might. Do they have a pocket mask in their purse or their pocket? Maybe not? Odds are no. But we all have two hands where we can use those two hands in the center of the chest and that's how simple it is. And if you've seen, if I show you how easy and easy it is to use, you're going to walk away within a half hour and say you know what? I can do this, and that's the message we want to send out, because then more people will engage and help each other when there's a situation that comes up with cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1:What can we do to urge the average citizen to want to learn CPR, like I think most people think about it, but what can we do to get them out there and learn?
Speaker 2:There's a thousand cardiac arrests that happen every day, less than in our United States. Less than 10% survive. Don't think it'll never happen to you or one of your loved ones or family, because the odds are it will, and sometime in the course of anybody's life, either your grandparent or even young children, because our big push is young children, because 23 kids a day on an age of 18 die of cardiac arrest on our ball fields and our soccer fields and basketball courts. People think, oh, kids can't have a cardiac arrest. That is false and I can introduce you to numerous parents who've lost their children, who are pounding a payment every day trying to get that message, to get their kids heart screen. Just don't think, oh, the kids are young, healthy, 16-year-old athlete and are strong. Well, there might be something going on in the heart that you just don't know.
Speaker 2:So get the heart screening, make sure something's going on. Be proactive of your children. Find a CPR community class. I offer them when anybody ever calls me. This message for me is not about any value. It's about spreading the message. I've been given a gift and I want to spread that gift to anyone and anyone who's willing to listen.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, and thank you for the impact that it's having to the community and other lives around you, nationwide, it sounds like. So we're gonna wrap up with our final question we ask all of our guests is what is your favorite part about living in the greater Palm Beach area?
Speaker 2:Well, I've lived here since 1986. Now, what is that? 37, 38 years? I started in Fort Lauderdale. I've watched this place grow and change so much. As you can imagine. A much longer ladies have been and I've traveled, like I said, all 48 states is last couple years.
Speaker 2:There's still not a place like South Florida. We have our cons, but our pros outweigh those cons in a lot of ways. We have services, we have Activities. If you can't find what you're looking to do in Palm Beach County or Fort Lauderdale, you're just not looking. I mean, there's the beaches, there's parks, there's Clubs, there's restaurants. I mean we got everything we really do and it's just and we end up topping off. We got the weather. Look at it, it's November and we're in shorts. I mean, come on, look at you, got the lighthouse dooper lighthouse right behind. I've spent so many times I love that place right there. I mean that's one of my favorite beaches actually dooper Juneau. I mean it's just. We hear a lot of negativity about South Florida but if you look at the big picture, palm Beach County is, is, is always gonna be a destination of people that want to move to, because it's just, it's just ideal for people to come live and enjoy themselves.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. Thank you so much for joining us today. We'll make sure to give our listeners a description of where they can get in contact with you and if they want to join in for a CPR class. Thank you, guys, so much for listening to another episode of I love Palm Beach. Hope you have a great day. Take care, bye, bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much.