Free CPR, AED training available May 15
Knowing how to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) saves lives, the Compress & Shock Foundation suggests.
About 350,000 sudden cardiac arrests – the sudden loss of heart function – occur away from hospitals each year. The survival rate is less than 10%. The chance of survival increases tremendously when CPR and AED use begins before emergency medical providers arrive on the scene. An AED administers a shock to a patient’s heart to restore a normal heart rhythm.
Aurora BayCare Medical Center is teaming up with Compress & Shock, a national non-profit organization, to train local businesses and individuals on recognizing cardiac arrest and administering life-saving compressions and, if needed, AED shocks.
Compress & Shock will hold free compression-only CPR and AED training sessions on Saturday, May 15, at the West Side YMCA at 601 Cardinal Lane in Howard and at the East Side YMCA at 1740 S. Huron Road in Bellevue. The sessions will be supervised by licensed paramedics, emergency physicians and certified instructors.
Dr. Bob Zemple, an emergency medicine physician with BayCare Clinic, is a fervent supporter of CPR and AED training. He is EMS medical director at Aurora BayCare Medical Center.
“Time is a precious commodity when it comes to cardiac emergencies,” Zemple says. “We’re hopeful that by properly training more people within the community, we’ll be able to save more lives.”
Follow these links to RSVP for the training session at the location and time of your choice: West Side at 9 a.m. ; West Side at 11 a.m. ; East Side at 9 a.m. ; East Side at 11 a.m.
The BayCare Clinic Foundation and several BayCare Clinic physicians are providing financial support for Compress & Shock.