Hands-Only CPR Tour Gets Rolling
The American Heart Association's mobile training unit is in Albany, N.Y., June 9-12 as part of its summer tour. A related video shows how the Bee Gees' "Stayin’ Alive" has an ideal rhythm for chest compressions.
There's no excuse for failing to be trained to perform hands-only CPR this summer. Not only is the American Heart Association's mobile training unit visiting five eastern cities this month, but also a new video explains how easy it is to perform compressions correctly by matching the rhythm of the Bee Gees' hit song "Stayin' Alive."
The song is the centerpiece of the new AHA Hands-Only CPR awareness campaign, which is supported by a $4.5 million grant from the WellPoint Foundation and will help AHA reach its goal to double survival from cardiac arrest by 2020.
The mobile unit began its tour in New York City before stops in Albany, N.Y. (June 9-12), Richmond, Va. (June 15-18), Atlanta (June 21-23), and Indianapolis (June 27-29). Its fall stops will be in Sacramento, Calif. (Sept. 20-22), San Francisco (Sept. 25-27), Los Angeles (Oct. 1-3), and San Diego (Oct. 5-8).
"People feel more confident performing hands-only CPR and are more likely to remember the correct compression rate when trained to the beat of 'Stayin' Alive,'" said Dr. Alson Inaba, the AHA CPR instructor credited with first using the song to help students recall the right rate of compressions. "Not only is it a fun, catchy, and memorable way to remember what to do, but it works -– people's lives have been saved because of it."
Actress Jennifer Coolidge, whose work includes the CBS show "2 Broke Girls" and films such as "Best in Show," "American Pie," and "Legally Blonde," stars in an AHA public service announcement about hands-only CPR. "It seems almost impossible to me that the whole world doesn't know CPR. I learned hands-only CPR while shooting the American Heart Association's new PSA, and now I know how to save a life," she said. "Who would've thought? I can save a life!"
According to AHA, nearly 400,000 Americans suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year, and almost 90 percent die because they don't receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene.