Today the miraculous story of how paramedics saved a man’s life using new technology broke. The original incident happened in January but thanks to new health guidelines released this week the story is once again in the headlines. In January Howard Snitzer’s heart stopped due to a heart attack and if it had not been for a new technology called capnography experts say there is no way Snitzer would have survived.

What made Snitzer’s story so unique is that his heart had stopped for over an hour and a half but the paramedics knew to continue working on him because their capnography machine showed he had a chance of survival. The capnography system is able to monitor carbon dioxide in a person’s breath to show the chances of survival as well as help medical teams determine what exactly is the problem. The paramedics that responded to Snitzer were reportedly some of the first to have the new technology and they say without the machine they would have been forced to give up on Snitzer well before the one hour mark.

This week the American Heart Association recommended that all medical personnel and emergency staff members have access to a capnography machine because it really can make the difference between life and death. All across the country capnography machines are becoming more and more popular thanks to the life saving benefit proved by Mr. Snitzer’s amazing story of survival.

Earlier this week Howard Snitzer was walking down the street in his hometown in Minnesota when he suddenly began feeling chest pains. Snitzer reportedly grabbed his chest and fell to the cold sidewalk due to a heart attack. Fortunately some braze bystanders stepped in and offered their help and in turn saved Snitzer’s life.

Reported indicate that a group of brothers saw the incident take place and immediately jumped into action. One man began doing whatever he could to save Snitzer while his brother quickly searched for help. The three men began by performing CPR on Snitzer and much to their dismay he was not responding even after minutes of CPR.

Before help arrived the men and a group of approximately a dozen bystanders continued performing CPR on Snitzer. Reports indicate that the group of people took turns working on Snitzer for over an hour and a half while waiting for help to arrive. Miraculously Snitzer did in fact survive.

Many doctors say this was likely the most intensive out of hospital resuscitation ever undergone; they say the odds were heavily stacked against Snitzer and despite that he is recovering just fine. The most amazing part of the story is that the entire event took place in a town of less than 1000 people in rural Minnesota.

Howard Snitzer has a lot of people to thank for his survival on Jan. 5 when he had a heart attack while walking on a sidewalk in Goodhue, Minn. When he fell t the ground the Lodermeier brothers at Roy and Al’s Auto Service saw and ran t where he lay.

Snitzer had no pulse, and wasn’t breathing. For the next 96 the Lodermeier brothers, along with bystander Candace Koehn, and more than two dozen other first responders took turns performing CPR on him. This team effort is likely what saved Snitzer’s life, in what appears to be one of the longest, triumphant out-of-hospital resuscitations ever.

The emergency helicopter from the Mayo Clinic flew from Rochester, Minn., about 35 miles away. If not for the team effort CPR that the would-be rescuers did for Snitzer, he would have lost oxygen to his brain and died. Studies show that only about five percent of people who have a heart attack on the street survive.

Their teamwork kept blood flowing to Snitzer’s brain, making each rescuer a surrogate for his failing heart. “The brain survives, at best, five or six minutes when the blood flow stops,” Wilkoff says. Nationwide, only about 5% of people who suffer cardiac arrest on the street are resuscitated and leave the hospital, he says.

In this case, Snitzer, 54, did survive after spending 10 days in the hospital.

His story shows the importance of learning CPR, according to the paramedics who responded to his heart attack. They said the number one reason he lived is because people there started good, hard and fast CPR.