Health & Fitness
You Could Save a Life by Knowing CPR & Help Others Learn by Volunteering Here
On August 25th Stamford-based Hands for Life is doing its part to make sure as many people here in our area know about hands-only CPR by organizing the largest hands-only CPR training event ever.
Imagine this: You’re sitting around a table at a family party or out for the night with friends. All of a sudden someone starts having difficulty breathing or begins complaining of chest or upper body pain. It’s a heart attack. It’s an event that affects nearly eight hundred thousand Americans a year according to the Centers for Disease Control.
What would you do? What could you do? Believe it or not, experts say there’s a specific action you can take, even before emergency help arrives, that could mean the difference between life and death. We’re talking about Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, or CPR.
On August 25th a local nonprofit agency is doing its part to make sure as many people here in our area know about hands-only CPR—and they’re doing it in a big way. Stamford-based Hands for Life is organizing the largest hands-only CPR training event ever. Their goal? To train more than ten thousand people over the course of ten hours. If they reach their goal, this would shatter the Guinness World Record!
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Not only will the event show participants how to perform hands-only CPR, without mouth-to-mouth, but organizers will also instruct folks in how to use AED’s, automated electronic defibrillators. What’s more, this event is entirely free and open to everyone in the community.
Dr. Thomas Nero, an interventional cardiologist at Comprehensive Cardiology of Stamford and Greenwich, is at the center of this initiative and is working tirelessly with an all-volunteer staff to pull it off.
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Experts, like Dr. Nero, say hands-only CPR has the potential to generate enough blood flow to vital organs to make a difference until professional help arrives. He says he wants everyone to feel empowered.
“There are many ways that we can give back to our community, but few are as basic as actually saving someone’s life,” said Nero. “Hands-only CPR can do just that. By performing compressions without mouth-to-mouth when someone has a cardiac arrest, a patient’s chance of survival doubles. We want people to have the confidence that they can and should perform these potentially life saving techniques.”
Hands for Life still needs plenty of volunteers to help pull off this massive undertaking. From hospitality to crowd control, volunteers will be an essential part of making this event a success. If you’d like to help out, there are several four-hour shifts that need filling. You can learn more about how to get involved by going to VolunteerSquare.com or just sign up directly at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090D4BADA72EA02-volunteers
Again, the event is set for Saturday August 25th at the new Chelsea Piers in Stamford. You can find all of the specifics, including information on registration, directions and transportation, on the Hands for Life 2012 website.
Whether or not you can volunteer, we hope you’ll consider taking part in this historic event and help Hands for Life empower our communities. We’ll see you there! As always, you can learn more about opportunities to get involved like these and more at VolunteerSquare.com anytime.
