Brothers invent CPR device

ARMONK, N.Y. (WABC) -- Two brothers in Westchester County have an invention that they hope will save thousands of lives.

It helps bystanders better perform CPR.

Outside of hospitals, CPR is successful only about 8% of the time, something they want to change.

They're college students now, but the origins of the device John and Chris di Capua have invented dates back to when they were Boy Scouts and first trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"That's when we first noticed people weren't very good at doing CPR," said John DiCapua, the device inventor.

For someone in cardiac arrest, chest compressions keep blood flowing. That alone is good, but better when combined with mouth to mouth ventilation which sends oxygen to the brain. But many people shy away from such intimate contact.

"People don't perform mouth to mouth ventilation, and when they do perform mouth to mouth ventilation they do it incorrectly," John DiCapua said.

So in high school, John and Chris started work on their machine assembled from $150- worth of material. All users have to do is insert a device into a patient's airway and turn on what they call AVAC. It pumps the equivalent of 14 breaths a minute of pure oxygen from a canister into the lungs. That allows a rescuer to focus on chest compressions. The blinking metronome acts a guide to time each push: 100 per minute.

"It's very difficult, especially during a high intensity situation to internally keep track of what 100 beats actually is," said Chris DiCapua, the device inventor.

This has been a five year project, but it can take 15 years to bring a medical device to market. But in January they completed a key step, it's when the brothers received a U.S. patent.

The goal is to one day have AVAC units next to, or incorporated into, the design of defibrillators and available in public spaces. No surprise the brothers are studying to be doctors like their father. As for mom, she couldn't be prouder.

"I think it's been their ability to think outside of the box, to problem solve on many different perspectives that really has brought them to this point today," said Christine DiCapua, the inventors' mother.

The former scouts have created a device that could one day save countless lives.