A high school senior and Girl Scout Ambassador has taken matters into her own hands. She surveyed her high school teachers to determine how many had CPR training.

Surprisingly, only one-third of the teachers were currently CPR certified, while most had neither CPR training nor experience.

So Amanda has set out to make sure at least two-thirds of the teachers get CPR certified, or re-certified. She’s enlisted the help of a local fire department, and she’s looking for additional instructors who are willing to teach the teachers CPR for free.

In addition to this worthy goal, she’s raising money to buy two defibrillators for her school.
Go Amanda!

Be a Hero. Learn CPR!

The Lucas CPR Device is getting around, joining a growing list of CPR success stories like the one where a seven-year-old learned CPR from YouTube and saved her mom’s life. A Texas fire department has equipped all their ambulances with the life-saving tool.

The independent chest compressing device frees up medics to perform other life-saving responsibilities, the kind of heroics chronicled in The Angel of CPR.

And the CPR device has proven itself valuable, much like it did when CPR and AED saved a teenage girl from death. A man received Lucas compressions for nearly three hours, until he was able to reach a hospital, where doctors removed a blood clot. His heart began pumping on its own.

Perhaps all fire departments should look into the Lucas CPR Device. It sounds like a great tool, however, knowing CPR — through SimpleCPR online certification — is still the best thing you can do to help save a life.

Learn CPR!

This is not a joke. Recently, in California, an elderly resident died because the independent living facility has rules that forbids any of the employees to give CPR until emergency responders arrive. What????

This terrible situation created a lot of ruckus for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and soon Memorandum 14-01-NH was released.

Even though the memorandum made it clear that nursing homes should use CPR when necessary, the independent living centers are governed by state law, not CMS.

It seems that the state of Wisconsin is the only state to actually revise their CPR policies. No word from California. Before selecting an independent living facility for yourself or a loved one, you might want to investigate their CPR policy. And write your congressman or senator about changing these regulations!