There are hundreds more potential heroes in the Oneida area, thanks to CPR in Schools. With help from volunteers, Oneida High School trained its student body of approximately 760 students in Hands-Only CPR over two days. These students are now equipped with the skills to respond if they witness a cardiac arrest emergency.
In September, the New York State Board of Regents voted to officially include Hands-Only CPR training as part of the high school curriculum. Now, every students in New York will learn this lifesaving skill before they graduate.
Students at Oneida High School each learned Hands-Only CPR within one class period. Training included a video tutorial and practice on a manikin. CPR Anytime Kits, including a DVD and manikin, were donated to Oneida High School and 21 other local school districts by The Gorman Foundation to be used for training. Volunteers from six organizations assisted with trainings, including Basset Healthcare Network, Central Oneida Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Morrisville State College School of Nursing, Oneida Healthcare, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital School of Nursing, and Utica College.
“We are grateful to everyone involved in this Hands-Only CPR training,” said Steve Gassner, chairman of the Greater Utica American Heart Association advisory board. “By empowering students to learn Hands-Only CPR, Oneida High School is helping to add hundreds of lifesavers to our community.”
“The Gorman Foundation is proud to support CPR in Schools,” said Amanda Larson, the president of The Gorman Foundation. “You never know which students will be in a position to save a life. With these kits and trainings these students will be able to.”
Cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs. More than 326,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year in the U.S. Unfortunately, only about 10% of those patients survive. Immediate CPR can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival.
Hands-Only CPR has just two simple steps: If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, (1) Call 9-1-1; and (2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest. During CPR, you should push on the chest at a rate of at least 100 compressions per minute. To easily keep this rate, push the chest to the beat of the disco song “Stayin’ Alive.”
Whitesboro High School also trained all of its juniors and seniors in Hands-Only CPR over the same two days.
For more information on Hands-Only CPR, please visit www.heart.org/handsonlycpr.