By EMS1 Staff
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. — AMR is teaming up with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the American College of Emergency Physicians to train bystanders on how to save lives with CPR.
According to a press release, the three organizations are collaborating for the second year during National EMS Week, May 20 to 26, to train civilians on what to do if someone suffers cardiac arrest or significant trauma.
Free training will be offered during the World CPR Challenge to anyone wishing to learn how to help in the “chain of survival” by providing compression-only CPR to someone in cardiac arrest until responders arrive.
Other agencies will also offer “Stop the Bleed” training during the challenge to encourage bystanders to know what to do in an emergency before responders can treat victims.
“At no other time in history are we seeing how bystander intervention can improve the outcome when they intervene with CPR or by applying a tourniquet to somebody who has suffered a trauma,” AMR CEO and president Edward Van Horne said. “Our crews care for more than 30,000 sudden cardiac arrest victims annually, and we know firsthand how survival rates can double or triple when trained bystanders jump into action. Since we created the World CPR Challenge, we have trained more than a quarter million bystanders in compression-only CPR – and that’s just the beginning. Our continuing partnership with IAFC and ACEP will help us to greatly expand our reach as we continue educating citizens about how to save lives.”