The College of Southern Marylands American Heart Association Training Center is partnering with the American Medical Response (AMR) May 22 to provide free training on how to save lives through compression-only CPR. The event is part of AMRs nationwide observance of National Emergency Medical Services Week as well as the World CPR Challenge Day to train as many people as possible in compression-only CPR.
CSMs Continuing Education and Workforce Development Healthcare Director Kelly Winters explained that compression-only CPR enables bystanders to keep life-saving blood flowing through a victims body just by pressing on the chest in a hard, fast rhythm. Statistics indicate that bystanders who provide compression-only CPR can double or triple a cardiac arrest victims chances of survival.
Stations will be available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., May 22, at CSMs Center for Business and Industry, BI Building, Room BI-113, La Plata.
This goal of this event is to train the public in compression only (also known as bystander) CPR, research indicates that survival rate increases by 48 percent when compressions are started immediately after a sudden cardiac arrest, thus by training the lay public to perform compressions we can theoretically increase the overall survival rate of our community, Winters said.
We are excited to be partnering with the college for this World CPR Challenge, said Jamie Smith, operations supervisor with AMR. We are looking to break the world record of people doing CPR in a day with a focus to train as many as possible in compression- only CPR. We will be one site among 40 states holding events simultaneously on May 22, so we are looking forward to Southern Maryland being a part of this record-breaking event.
AMR, a provider of medical transportation, provides services in 40 states and the District of Columbia. More than 17,000 AMR paramedics, EMTs, RNs and other professionals, with a fleet of 4,100 vehicles, transport more than three million patients nationwide each year in critical, emergency and non-emergency situations. AMR, a subsidiary of Emergency Medical Services Corporation, is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo.
As an AHA Training Center, CSM offers CPR and First Aid trainings as open enrollment courses as well as AHA courses as contract trainings through the colleges Corporate Center. For information about CSMs trainings, visit www.csmd.edu.