A Simple Way To Save Lives

Every year, more than 350,000 heart attacks happen in the United States, and more than 20 percent happen outside a hospital setting.

 That means bystanders can make a difference - if they know CPR.

 While it’s been proven effective, CPR training is not something most average citizens have learned, and many people are put off by the requirement to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

 So the American Heart Association, working with the Anthem Foundation, has created Hands-Only CPR, which only requires bystanders to do proper chest compressions and eliminates the mouth breathing step.

 The association has begun placing training kiosks in high-traffic areas such as airports. The kiosks feature a touchscreen with a video program that provides a brief introduction and overview of Hands-Only CPR, followed by a practice session and a 30-second test session. The whole training lasts about five minutes.

One of the chief takeaways is something most people can easily remember: Pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of the song “Stayin’ Alive,” which has 100 beats per minute. The popular Bee Gees’ tune features the minimum rate you should push on the chest during Hands-Only CPR.

We here at Northside support this simple approach to life-saving and we recently partnered with the Heart Association to place a training kiosk at the Store Support Center, where 6,000 Home Depot employees work. The kiosk enabled many associates from one of Atlanta’s largest employers to get this crucial training.

We’re grateful for this innovation and will continue to support it in the future. Having more and more people trained to do the right things in those first few minutes of a medical emergency can enable all of us to work together to save more lives.