Our foundation started on it’s mission of trying to save lives of cardiac arrest victims through education and the teaching of hands only CPR in May of 2014. Since that time we have taught over 4500 people in the Louisville metro area hands only CPR.
During the month of January, we have started our most ambitious program to date. Five premedical students from DePauw University (Greencastle,IN) have relocated to Louisville for 3 weeks in January to become cardiac arrest interns and teach hands only CPR during their Winter Term.
Janice Morgan, head CPR instructor for Louisville metro EMS, certified the students in CPR and then we had intensive training and practice in the teaching of hands only CPR. Last week the interns hit the floor running. Start the Heart Foundation taught hands only CPR at Mercy Academy, St. Xavier High School, Doss High School, Iroquois High School, The Brown School, Sacred Heart Academy, Western High School and Fern Creek High School. The number of freshman that we taught hands only CPR last week was over 900 students.
The foundation has taken a strategic approach of attempting to teach every freshman in Jefferson County. This is approximately 10,000 students. We feel that freshman aged students are physically and mentally capable of performing CPR effectively. Also, in our state, all freshman are required to participate in health class. We usually teach through the health and physical education classes at the high schools. By teaching every freshman in Jefferson County, we should be able to blanket the community with individuals trained in hands only CPR. A person who has been taught CPR one time in their life is more than 50% likely to respond and perform CPR in the future if called upon.
We are looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few weeks. This is an unprecedented CPR teaching effort in our community.