BILLINGS, Mo. -- Six hundred thousand Americans die every year when their hearts suddenly stop.  Bystanders respond to less than one third of those cases to attempt resuscitations.   That may change with a new set of guidelines aimed at simplifying cardio pulmonary resuscitation and saving more lives.

  CPR saves lives.  Stan Morgan is proof of that.  He was at the Billings VFW Post when his heart stopped two years ago.

  “We had a little pool tournament going here.  It was my turn. I got up here, shot, made it, missed, walked around, and went back to the bar.  I don't know if I made it.  I think I passed out and fell to the floor,” Morgan said recently.

  Someone called 911.  But then Morgan became one of the lucky few.  He got help within seconds of his heart attack, thanks to a bystander who began CPR immediately.

  "Had that not started -- and I don't know how much more they did -- there's not much that we could have done,” said Henry Boss, a first responder for the Billings Fire Protection District.

  That's because, the longer a heart is stopped, the harder it is to get it pumping again.

  “The first few minutes are most crucial,” said Brandon Maggard, another first responder for the Billings fire department.

  Volunteers from the Billings Fire Protection District responded within minutes of Morgan's heart attack.  They used a defibrillator, continued CPR, and sent Morgan to a hospital in Springfield on a helicopter ambulance. Still, they say those initial moments of CPR gave Morgan the chance he needed to survive.

  "If it hadn't been for one boy getting it started, I probably would have died laying on the floor,” said Morgan.

  Morgan is still looking for that bystander who helped save his life, just to thank him.  He belongs to an elite few. Recent surveys show only one in five bystanders will actually attempt CPR to save a life.

  Many are too reluctant to blow into a stranger's mouth. That's part of the reason the American Heart Association has come up with new guidelines that change a CPR basic.

  "We found things that are working but now it's a challenge to get people to make it work" said Steve Harkness, an EMT and paramedic educator.

   The challenge was to simplify CPR so more people would be trained and more lives would be saved.  So now, instead of two breaths for every 15 compressions, CPR guidelines recommend two breaths for every 30 compressions.  

  It turns out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a distant second to the importance of compressions.  In fact, researchers found breathing in the mouth prolonged interruptions of the chest compressions too much, interrupting critical flow of blood.

  "If I stop breathing, I still have some oxygen in my lungs. It's still there. But, if it's not being pumped, it's still in my lungs and not going to my body. So my brain's not getting it and my liver and kidneys -- none of that is getting that oxygen. But compressions circulate that.  For every breath you put in, you can circulate for quite awhile,” said Harkness.

  In fact, some cardiologists believe 100 continuous compressions per minute is the CPR of the future.  The challenge is getting lay people trained to be able to do that.

  "It’s invaluable to know,” said Harkness.  “If you can save a life, there's no greater feeling in the world."

   First responders know that feeling, and how physically exhausting chest compressions can be, especially now with fewer breaks for mouth-to-mouth.

  "The rules are you do it until you're too exhausted to continue,” said Boss.

  "I've done CPR on a patient all the way from Crane to St. John's Hospital in Springfield.  Adrenaline carries you most of the way with it,” said Maggard.

  It’s the kind of adrenaline that helped save Morgan's life.

  "Stan, don't make us come back,” the first responders told him recently when they were together.

   “I hope not,” Morgan replied.  “Thanks, guys."

  Two years after his heart attack, Morgan is doing great.  It’s a story of survival that he hopes will inspire more people to learn CPR and be ready to use it.

  "I’m just thankful these guys know their business and one fellow was already here,” he said.

  The only thing that Morgan knows about his first rescuer is his name is Mike. He's still looking for him. 

 If you would like to learn CPR, classes are regularly offered at area hospitals, the American Heart Association, and the American Red Cross.