CPR/AED: The Life you save, may be someone you love

Every year more than 300,000 people in the United States fall victim to sudden cardiac arrest outside of the hospital.  More than 95% of these cardiac arrest victims die before ever reaching the hospital. That equates to as many as 917 victims each day.  Working together there is something communities can do to increase a person’s chances of surviving such a deadly attack. Early CPR coupled with early defibrillation may increase survival by as much as ten-fold.   Cities such as Seattle where citizen CPR training is promoted have increased their survivability from less than five percent up to 30%.  Preparing thousands of citizens with the basic knowledge of CPR will increase the odds that a by-stander will act promptly and appropriately with more lives saved.   

Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine has partnered with the Desert Healthcare District, local fire departments, the City of Rancho Mirage and the City of Indian Wells to make the Coachella Valley a safer place to live.  The Coachella Valley PAD/CPR Program is a three year project with an objective to enhance the save rate for cardiac arrest victims by 25% within the Coachella Valley.   We intend to accomplish this making AEDs more available in public places.   We are placing 50 AEDs in public buildings, senior centers, schools, churches and sports venues throughout the Coachella Valley.  We at the same time recruit and train ten percent of the Coachella Valley’s adult population in CPR utilizing the new American Heart Association’s self instruction CPR training kit.  The kit reduces training time from the traditional four hours to about 40 minutes. Many more are trained by this advanced capability for teaching.

More than 80% of out of hospital cardiac arrests occur in the home.  Odds are that if you are called upon to help someone, that person will be a loved one. This Program is offered free to residents of the Coachella Valley over the age of 16.  The CPR/AED training sessions and self instruction CPR kits are made available to individual  residents, schools, and diverse public, private and faith based organizations. Interested individuals or agencies may contact Mike Potter at the Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine for training at (760) 778-4911.