It was precisely the type of situation to which Oguz Goknur had prepared himself to respond when he took his very first CPR class in college.
Goknur’s then-girlfriend had suffered a severe reaction to medication, lost consciousness and had stopped breathing. With precious little time to act, Goknur checked and found a weak pulse, then initiated rescue breathing, as the protocol then required.
The woman regained consciousness with a gasp and a sputter. Goknur had saved his first life.
“In the moment, I was able to recall everything I had learned,” Goknur said “After that, I was totally sold on the importance of knowing CPR.”
These days, it’s Goknur who helps prepare others to calmly and expertly respond to emergency situations through Fast CPR, a nonprofit organization he founded three years ago. Whether addressing prospective doctors and nurses during mandatory OSHA training or teaching the essentials of infant CPR to expectant parents, Goknur does whatever he can to keep his lessons hands-on, relatable and, most of all, memorable.
Goknur was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and emigrated to the United States with his family as an adolescent. He arrived in Springfield, Mo., not knowing a word of English but quickly adapted to his new surroundings.
After graduating from Southwest Missouri State, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business management, Goknur made good on a long-held dream and moved to
Hawaii, where one of his sisters had settled.
Goknur initially found work at a private college teaching a variety of general education courses.
“I’d teach accounting or math or whatever was on the calendar,” he says. “Sometimes I just had to pick up the textbook, memorize it and start teaching.”
Later, he earned a master’s degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine from the World Medicine Institute. It was through his acupuncture patients, many of them medical professionals, that Goknur learned of the demand for trainers qualified to teach CPR, basic life support and automated external defibrillator use.
At Fast CPR, Goknur has trained instructors on staff and an accompaniment of contracted instructors at the ready, yet he still teaches classes of his own nearly every day of the week. He likens it to a head chef maintaining a regular presence in the kitchen. Plus, he says, he enjoys the interactions.
“Teaching shouldn’t feel like teaching,” he says. “Sometimes their knowledge of English varies or there are cultural differences, but one of my strengths is helping people learn by having a good time.”
Thus, students learn not just the proper ratio of compressions to breaths (30:2) and how to apply proper pressure so that compressions go 2 to 2.5 inches deep, but also that the rhythm can be synced to music in your head. Goknur used to teach students to keep a beat similar to the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” With updates to the American Heart Association guidelines, he’s had to accelerate that to “gym techno.”
“It’s all about finding ways to relate it to everyday life and to make it fun,” he says. “Situations that call for CPR are very serious, but I try not to overwhelm people with the drama. I want them to think about what they can do in the moment that is positive.”
For more information, visit fastcpr.org.
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
Correction: An earlier version of the story misspelled Oguz Goknur’s name.
