ProCPR Blog

When it comes to CPR training, people always think of the hands-on training that folks are required to do the first time they take CPR.

Hands-on skills practice is a good thing, which is why we have Blended CPR.  CPR isn’t brain surgery, but most folks feel more comfortable if they’ve practiced doing the physical motor skills training on dummies that don’t ever really feel like what it does when you’re actually performing CPR on a real person.

Now a proposal has passed the Senate that would require Hands-on CPR practice in high school resuscitation programs.

The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville was approved 31-0 on Monday. The companion bill is still awaiting a vote in the House Education Committee.

Instead of just requiring instruction in the techniques and skills associated with CPR, the proposal would require “students learn the techniques and practice the psychomotor skills associated with performing CPR.”

-via

To bring CPR to your high school, check out StudentCPR.com

We’re all over the social networks, and we’d like you to join us there.  Recently, Google+ added pages for business, and we’ve created a few that we’d like you to add, if you are part of that network. Google+ is a new social network that is kind of a combination of Facebook and Twitter, and includes games such as Angry Birds. It’s only about six or so months old, so it’s much smaller than either Facebook or Twitter. We’re monitoring all three places for your questions, though, so feel free to get in touch with us with them.

(more…)

Recently there has been a lot of talk about how doing CPR to the 100 beat-per-minute song Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees was the way to go.  It has the proper number of beats per minute, and can potentially keep you on pace correctly.  Another song that fits the mold, albeit a morbid one, would be Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.

There has been other research, meanwhile, indicated that a childrens’ song called “Nellie the Elephant” was better.  I have never heard of that song, so I’m not sure how many would think of it and be able to apply that if they were in a position where they needed to do CPR.

New research has been conducted at the Malcolm Woollard of Coventry University in Britain, where they conducted an experiment with 74 delegates attending an Australian College of Ambulance Professionals conference in New Zealand.  The delegates had volunteered to perform CPR on a training dummy.

(more…)

Two-and-a-half years after her heart stopped for almost an hour, bus driver Laura Geraghty said Monday she would have died if it weren’t for an automatic external defibrillator on the grounds of Newton South High School and some timely CPR.

“That defibrillator and that CPR is what saved my life,” Geraghty, of North Attleboro, told lawmakers, describing her sudden heart failure during a school bus run that took her to the Newton school in April 2009.

Today, Geraghty is urging lawmakers to require schools to carry defibrillators for the rare but critical moments they’re needed to save a life. Geraghty spoke at a hearing of the Legislature’s Committee on Public Health on behalf of a bill that would require schools to have an “on-site” defibrillator.

Read the rest

Coda, a seven year old yellow Labrador retriever, was found sitting in a rocking chair in the room that the firefighters believe the fire started.  The dog had become trapped in the room during a house fire.

Firefighters arrived shortly after being notified of the fire, and were able to locate the dog, and carried him outside where they began mouth-to-nose (or mouth-to-snout) artificial respiration.  They placed an oxygen mask over the dog’s nose and washed some of the soot from his fur.

Firefighters Jamie Giese and Jared Thompson both said they have no formal training in animal rescue.  “It was all improvised,” Giese said.

Thompson said he remembered a few tips from the former reality television show “Rescue 911.”

Coda was taken to VCA Companion Care Animal Hospital in Wausau, and later transported to an animal hospital in Mosinee for an overnight stay to recuperate, Todd Borchardt said Tuesday night.

See photos and read the whole story.

“It must become a moral obligation and a social expectation that bystanders will perform CPR when they witness cardiac arrest,” said a declaration from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.  The CAEP is the Canadian national voice in emergency medicine, and develops standards and guidelines in this field.

The CAEP called on governments to implement mandatory CPR education in high school, insisting that the process should be a pre-requisite for graduation.

Companies that offer CPR education and Canadians that sign up for training should receive a 100 per cent tax rebate to cover the expense, the report also suggested.

(more…)

Recent discussions with behavioral health providers around the country reveal significant cutbacks in state and federal funding.

In most instances of cost-cutting efforts, training staff is often compromised in quality or eliminated entirely.

One employer was thrilled to identify a provider such as ProTrainings.com that significantly reduced training budgets, yet feedback from staff was more positive about the quality of the instruction than ever before. This person indicated they were spending over $60.00 per person for CPR and first aid certification and were compensating staff for over six hours of labor time. Both issues were reduced to one-third the original amount.

Learn more about how our group program can save your company time and money while boosting the quality of training.  Visit our Group Programs page today.

What we hear from our clients daily revolves around two key points:
1. Must I have staff trained every year? Time and money are in short supply.
2. May I have my staff certify every year? Two years between certifications is too long to retain proper skills.

Unless your state mandates annual training, there are some providers that may adjust the certification cycle between one or two years depending on your preference or requirement. Studies indicate that if CPR is not used or reviewed every 13 weeks (give or take), vital information and the confidence to respond to a crisis is greatly diminished.*

The point is even once a year is too long between certifications, thus frequent review of the material becomes more critical. ProTrainings.com is one provider that offers weekly video refreshers by email after certification to ensure better results and more confidence regardless of the certification timeline. Employers now have the best of both worlds, frequent review with a longer time between certifications.

A student from Harbor High School went into cardiac arrest during his physical education class on Wednesday morning.

The students were jogging when the incident happened.  It was shortly after they had begun when the student fell to the ground.  Fellow students called out for the teacher, Bassel Faltas, who ran about 100 yards to the scene.  He also called 911 from his cell phone on the way.  By the time he reached the boy, he was still breathing, but later stopped.  The teacher began CPR before the paramedics arrived.

The student was taken to Dominican Hospital, and flown from there to Sanford University Medical Center, where he remains hospitalized.

The school has offered counseling to the students to discuss any of their concerns.

Things like this really reinforce the importance of students learning CPR in high school.

-via

When I was at the dentist, I heard an amazing story that I somehow missed over the weekend about a rescue at a football game.  He was at the game between Michigan and Notre Dame when he suffered a heart attack during the second quarter, while at Michigan Stadium.  He was visiting Ann Arbor with his three sons, who are aged 45, 48 and 50.  My dentist knows of the sons.

Lee Staudacher, a 69-year-old from Bay City, Michigan, was enjoying the game when his heart suddenly stopped.  There was a dentist nearby that started CPR while others contacted emergency services.  The CPR was prompt, increasing his chances of survival greatly, and there was an on-site AED (Automated External Defibrillator) that was also put to use.

His family stayed nearby and watched while they shocked him with the paddles, and the prompt CPR was a key component in saving his life.  The medical team took him to the University of Michigan Health System’s Cardiovascular Center for treatment.  He didn’t miss the end of the game, as he was able to watch part of the fourth quarter while in an intensive care unit bed.

He’s a Notre Dame fan, but had a great time watching the game between these two old rivals, even though Michigan pulled off a 35-31 victory.  He wants to put the focus on the knowledge of CPR and the quick access of the AED that saved his life, however.