At the University of Minnesota, Michael Kellum studied chemistry. One night, he and a date watched a movie about doctors. Inspired by the film, Kellum registered for medical school the next day.
During his four years of medical school, he worked closely with a doctor conducting research. It was there that intense tutoring sessions took place, and Kellum’s medical curiosity was forever piqued.
Kellum was a pediatrician in Maine until 1982, when he shifted his specialty to emergency medicine and his practice to Chicago. Shortly thereafter, his wife called the Elkhorn Chamber of Commerce and discovered a new hospital was being built there. Two weeks later, Kellum interviewed and received a new job.
Today, Kellum is the medical director of Mercy Health System Walworth Medical Center in Lake Geneva, where he is one of the leading Wisconsin physicians conducting research on the survival of patients suffering out-of hospital cardiac arrests.
Kellum developed a cardiocerebral resuscitation treatment process, which he named the “call and pump.” The name refers to calling 911 and pumping the chest, rather than performing traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Kellum says.
Kellum has trained local paramedic and emergency medical services (EMS) staff throughout Walworth and Rock counties to use the system to save lives. Kellum’s research, published in the American Journal of Medicine, documents that cardiocerebral resuscitation improves the survival rate of patients who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
The research and data Michael and five other groups in the country are gathering show that the compressiononly technique vs. standard CPR increases survival rates for those suffering cardiac arrest by 75 percent. The American Heart Association may recognize the “call and pump” procedure when it convenes in 2010.
“Everything you do that isn’t pumping the chest during arrest is detrimental,” Kellum says. “We used to use three (electrical) shocks in a row. The probability of shocks two and three giving you what you didn’t get in shock one is in a small percentage range. You’re depriving the brain of blood flow for little gains.”
Kellum and his staff have recorded a DVD to train people how to perform the “call and pump.”
“Dr. Kellum is a true pioneer in the field of cardiocerebral resuscitation. Dr. Kellum is the kind of physician we all hope to find and what all physicians aspire to be,” says Deborah Madden, clinical coordinator at Walworth Medical Center, who nominated Kellum for a Health Care Heroes Award. “His knowledge base is never-ending, he shows compassion and empathy to his patients, and after all these years as a physician, he still is excited to come to work. I have seen him comfort a family when a loved one has passed away. I have seen him spend hours researching, documenting and analyzing all of the data that he has obtained and then make sense of it all. I am proud to call him my colleague.”
