it doesn’t work more often than it does.
Way, way back in the day, the guy who taught CPR to my academy class started with this observation "This probably won't work", before going on to say "But on the other hand, if you've got someone in cardiac arrest, they're already dead by any conventional definition, so really, it's all upside".
So true. Go for broke.
They have nothing left to lose and everything to gain.