Mark your calendars. A Community CPR Day will take place in Albany come September.
Albany County, MVP and the American Heart Association are joining forces to teach people how to administer life-saving CPR. Albany County officials say they've worked on CPR training with the American Heart Association for the past 15 years.
County Executive Dan McCoy says the new collaboration, known as the Innovation Partnership, intends to train 600 individuals. He encourages everyone to sign up for Hands-Only CPR that will take place at MVP Arena in downtown Albany on Sunday, September 29th from 10 to 3.
“You want to come here with your family," said McCoy. "You want to come here with some friends and learn something that can make a difference, not in just someone you love but someone could be your neighbor. Could be your co-worker. It could be, you know, just someone walking down the street, and you could be the one that makes a difference when everyone else is panicking. Because I don't know how many times you've seen that, when an emergency happens, everyone just panics, or, I think nowadays, everyone's like this. You just see it, they video it, and instead of helping out, they're just videoing it and uploading it, thinking how many likes they're going to get.”
The Democrat adds the Innovation Partnership will also donate a limited number of American Heart Association CPR & First Aid Youth Sports Training Kits to local youth sports teams on that day.
MVP Health Care’s President, Dr. Richard Dal Col, says CPR is easy to learn.
"The statistics around sudden cardiac arrest are quite grim. Every year, 350,000 people suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. Those arrests are most likely to happen in the home. Only 10% of those people survive. Only 10%. The good news is that knowing CPR doubles or triples the chances of someone surviving,” Dal Col said.
Dr. Neil Yager is president of the Capital Region Board of Directors of the American Heart Association and a cardiologist at Albany Medical Center:
“New York requires that every graduate of New York high schools, learns hands only CPR," said Yager. "And the importance of this was driven home last year in January when Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapsed. So everyone around Damar knew exactly what to do when he collapsed, but nobody expected his heart to stop that day, and nobody ever expects their heart to stop. But being ready will save lives.”
McCoy says registration is open for anyone who wants to attend the training session. “Please get the word out about this event. Join us, September 29th. It's only a few hours, and trust me, can make a difference in someone's life. You can register at www.heart.org/cpr518,” McCoy said.
