Fortitude Founder

Allen County
Founder Profile

Alyssa

Laughlin

Business

Advanced CPR Machine

Founded

August 2019

Grant Date

February 2020

Idea

To reduce death rates through a better system of administering CPR.

A local medial student is creating advanced technology that will save thousands of lives.

In August of 2019, Alyssa Laughlin, a biology and communications student at Purdue Fort Wayne, started reading Erasing Death by Sam Parnia. The book explores the idea that death is a process that can be interrupted by innovative care and technology.

She was inspired by this idea and through her volunteer work at Erin’s House for Grieving Children to search for innovative solutions to serious medical issues. Alyssa wanted to “interrupt” the process of death for many, and help prevent the grief that comes after.

Alyssa wanted to “interrupt” the process of death for many, and help prevent the grief that comes after.

Alyssa focused on CPR: Erasing Death discussed the ways CPR can be improved to help raise the rates of people being brought back from cardiac arrest from 17 percent to 30 percent.

She approached her cousin (now business parntner) Dusty Loshe, an engineering student at Purdue University, to see if it would be plausible to create a machine that would improve the way CPR is administered. He said it was.

Through her research, Alyssa discovered that an advanced CPR machine would need three components to be successful: correct CPR technique, oxygen delivery, and cooling. Together, she and Dusty have started creating sketches and ideas for what a machine that combines all three will look like.

Successful CPR includes three components: correct CPR technique, oxygen delivery, and cooling.

Although Alyssa and Dusty haven’t gone through prototyping yet and are still in the early phases of their business, they’ve been in talks with several medical professionals in the area who are optimistic about the future for this type of innovative technology.

The team hopes to eventually have their device in every hospital in the country and beyond, saving hundreds of thousands of lives along the way

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Contact Alyssa Laughlin