Schools

Photo: West Nyack 5th Graders Get Free CPR Kits

The American Heart Association Tri-County Region board selected West Nyack Elementary School as the recipient of 61 free CPR Anytime home training kits for 5th grade students on Jan. 25

 

The American Heart Association Tri-County Region board selected West Nyack Elementary School as the recipient of 61 free CPR Anytime home training kits. The students in the 5th grade class received the kits and training at an event on Jan. 25 at the school.

“Students have been buzzing about it all week and actively started training family members and friends in hands only CPR,” said Marla Pasquale, West Nyack Elementary Physical Education Teacher.

“Students were able to put all the steps into action with the Mini Anne and received additional helpful information from the video. Over 240 people will have learned the steps necessary to save a life in our small community after this training,” she said.

AHA Board member Lenny Nathan, AHA Board Member and President and CEO of HealthSav in Rockland, conducted the training for the students.

“When a teen or adult collapses suddenly from sudden cardiac arrest, survival depends on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby. Sadly, 89 percent of people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die because they don’t receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene,” said Nathan, who is
also an EMT. “Nearly 70 percent of Americans feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they don’t know how to administer CPR. We can change that statistic with simple training."

Family & Friends CPR Anytime is a self-directed, personal CPR kit that makes learning the core skills of CPR easy and convenient. Led by an easy-to follow, interactive DVD, it takes just 22 minutes to learn and can be done anywhere.

The TriCounty Board conducted an internal fund raiser and chose CPR as their priority issue this year.

“The American Heart Association is the leader in CPR training and the board thought that donating these self-training kits would make an impact, not only on the students but their families, too, since the kits are intended to be shared,” said Kevin Foord, AHA Board Chair.

Foord was saved with CPR at home by his teenage daughter. He now advocates for the AHA’s CPR in the Schools Bill, which would require CPR training as a requirement of high school graduation. The AHA will promote the passage of this bill this legislative session and encourages NYS residents to sign up at
www.supportcprinschools.org to ask their state representatives to support the bill.

“Eighty percent of sudden cardiac arrests happen in private or residential settings. Knowing CPR can double or triple the chances of survival,” said Foord. “We hope they will never have to use CPR but now they will have the training should they need it.”

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – America’s No. 1 and No. 4 killers. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit www.heart.org or call any of our offices around the country.

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