Survival Instinct

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Posted on June 15, 2026 by Alumni

Alumni

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When a heart stops, the first three to five minutes are crucial. After that, irreversible brain damage begins.

Suhas Patil, a University of South Alabama Honors College student, knows this all too well. In addition to pursuing majors in biomedical sciences and philosophy, Patil works as an advanced emergency medical technician in Baldwin County, where a trip to the nearest hospital can take up to an hour.

One call early in his time at South — for a grandmother who didn’t get care soon enough — stood out.

“Her grandkids were around my age,” says Patil. “That got me thinking.”

Bystander intervention increases a patient’s chance of survival by two to three times, according to the American Heart Association. So Patil got to work: With a two-page proposal, he went to the dean of the Honors College and began building what would become the CPR Initiative.

Using borrowed equipment from South’s health simulation program and the American Heart Association, Patil’s student-led program in its first year taught 775 freshmen how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use an automated external defibrillator. One year later, the number of trainees 
had doubled, with eight other universities now interested in launching their own version of the program.

“Eventually, whole schools could be trained to save lives,” says Patil, who has his eye set on medical school. “That’s my vision.”

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