The American Heart Association is recommending the public start practicing a new kind of CPR.

It's called 'compression only CPR' and it was developed at the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, Arizona.

It's a hand only technique that involves pushing on a patient's chest without performing mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Reacting to the Heart Association endorsement, Dr. Gordon Ewy says, "We've been recommending this for 15 years. So we're absolutely delighted."

Ewy is director of the Sarver Heart Center. He helped pioneer the new compression only CPR.

Ewy believes, "It means more people will be saved."

Ewy says cardiac arrest kills 900 people every day in this country, partly because many bystanders won't do mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Now, the Heart Association endorsement means bystanders who see a person suddenly collapse with cardiac arrest won't have to debate whether to act.

Brian Duffield, 42, says, "It's a huge piece of why I'm here today."

Duffield swims with the University of Arizona's Masters Team.

Two years ago he'd just finished swimming and was in the shower when he had a heart attack. "[It] sent me to the tile floor, out cold."

One of the treatments Duffield got was compression only CPR. He believes more use of it will save more lives.

"It hopefully puts a lot more people across the country in the same situation I'm in today, sitting here and talking with you," said Duffield.