San Diego paramedics have saved lives using a new CPR technique, it was announced Thursday.

"Already, we have gotten back anecdotal evidence from several of our first responders that they have been able to bring back a pulse in victims who would have not made it," Mayor Jerry Sanders said.

All of the city's 450 paramedics have been trained in the updated CPR guidelines established by the American Heart Association for treating sudden cardiac arrest, said Dr. Jim Dunford, the city's medical director.

The technique, which was demonstrated outside a downtown San Diego fire station, includes more chest compressions and fewer breaths, compared to the long-standing way CPR was previously performed.

Hard, fast, continuous compressions to the chest help force more oxygenated blood to the heart than the old technique, officials said.

Dunford compared the updated method to "priming a pump."

"You know you have to push on a pump several times before the blood starts flowing,' he said. "That's the principal we have adopted."

Cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the country, killing about 335,000 people a year, according to the American Heart Association.

San Diego Medical Services Enterprise, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department and San Diego City Lifeguards are among the first in the country to use the new CPR technique, according to the mayor's office.

One person saved as a result of the new technique was a 37-year-old man whose heart recently stopped beating at a Mission Bay park, said Maurice Luque, spokesman for the SDFRD.

As part of "National Emergency Medical Services Week," Sanders thanked the city's paramedics for their work.

"As someone who has served on a police force for 26 years, I understand firsthand how critical our emergency services personnel are in keeping us all safe," the mayor said, flanked by several paramedics.

San Diego paramedics respond to an average of 240 emergency medical calls a day and about 90,000 calls per year, he said.

"That's a lot of lives touched," Sanders said.

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