Studies show young people can learn CPR technique, a skill that saves lives. Watch video
Ten years ago this month, Don Treeger, a prize-winning veteran photographer for The Republican, was at Holyoke Hospital, with a simple goal — to complete an assignment.
But, just as he stepped off the elevator, Treeger suffered a massive heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest.
Richard Craven Jr. leads a CPR class to re-certify West Springfield firefighters. Hospital workers were there immediately. He was given CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for 40 minutes, shocked multiple times, with an automated external defibrillator, and eventually airlifted to another hospital, where he underwent surgery for a stent.
Today, Treeger says he's "one of the lucky ones."
He is back to living a healthy life, but he’s set out on a mission — to encourage area schools to teach students CPR – a move Treeger believes could help save more lives. The lifesaving, emergency technique is used when someone's breathing or heartbeat has stopped.
“I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” said Treeger, explaining that he happened to land directly in front of a nurses station upon passing out. “I know most sudden cardiac arrest victims are not as fortunate, and that without immediate CPR, survival rates decrease significantly.”
Treeger has made a short video promoting CPR, and is teaming up with the American Heart Association, to encourage area school districts to take just 30 minutes to teach students CPR.
"The more recruits we can train for this CPR team, the more lives that will be saved. That's an indisputable fact. I signed up for CPR training shortly after my heart attack, in the hopes that, if called upon, I will be able to assist someone in need. If we can train a new generation of lifesavers, our world will be a safer place to live," Treeger said.
His sentiment is bolstered by studies which show young people can learn CPR technique, and by facts that underscore the importance of immediate first aid. The association’s website notes that effective CPR provided by a bystander "immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival,” but adds that “only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.” The site notes that “less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive.”
“If you suffer sudden cardiac arrest, your best chance at survival is receiving bystander CPR, until emergency medical technicians arrive,” said Allyson Perron, senior director of government relations with the association. “We are creating a generation of lifesavers by encouraging students to learn CPR, before they graduate. In less than the time it takes to watch a TV sitcom, we can give students the skills they need to help save a person’s life with CPR. Teaching students CPR will add lifesavers to our community, year after year, and everyone benefits.”
According to the association, sudden cardiac arrest is "not the same as a heart attack," but occurs when "electrical impulses in the heart become rapid or chaotic, which causes the heart to suddenly stop beating." In contrast, a "heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked."
While sudden cardiac arrest is most often caused by a heart attack, according to the association, it can also be caused by trauma, an overdose, or drowning. In sudden cardiac arrest, the blood stops circulating; oxygen stops flowing to the brain; and the victim stops breathing.
According to the association's fact sheet, some "383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home" with
many victims appearing "healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors.
“CPR is the lifesaving solution,” Perron said in a release. “Many people are alive today because individuals trained in CPR – including youth and adults who received that training in school — gave someone CPR until EMTs arrived. We need to create a generation in which every brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, and complete stranger is trained in CPR at school and is prepared to save lives.”
Currently, 12 states throughout the country, including Rhode Island and Vermont, teach CPR as a graduation requirement, by working it into existing classes. Studies have shown that even younger students are capable of learning and effectively performing CPR that involves doing chest compressions, checking for blocked airways and rescue breathing.
Massachusetts, which has “Good Samaritans” liability protection written into law, requires all public schools to have automated external defibrillators. These are portable devices that checks the heart rhythm, and can, if needed, be employed to send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.
The commonwealth also has legislation that addresses funding in schools for CPR training, and there is proposed legislation in the Massachusetts House and Senate (Bill House 416, Bill Senate 266) that reads: “All public high school students shall be required to study and to demonstrate a general knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of automatic external defibrillators as a prerequisite for graduation.”
The American Heart Association offers a “CPR in Schools Training Kit.” The portable kit contains everything needed to train 10 students at once in CPR. It is designed as a 30-minute CPR lesson, where students or faculty practice on a manikin, while watching skills performed correctly on the DVD.
To teach students in your school district CPR visit heart.org/CPRinschools, or contact Allyson Perron at (781) 373-4522.
South Deerfield-based Channing Bete is also a distributor of related association products at http://aha.channing-bete.com/school.html
The Pioneer Valley Chapter of the Red Cross offers CPR classes. For more information, visit http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class.
Related:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/aed/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-cpr/basics/art-20056600