With the help of the popular Bee Gees’ song, “Stayin’ Alive”—which replicates the hearts natural rhythm of 100 bpm, Lee’s Summit Medical Center and Lee’s Summit North High School will team up to teach the community two important steps to save a life: first, call 9-1-1 and second, push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of “Stayin” Alive.” Hands-only CPR training will be taught by the experts at Lee’s Summit Medical Center during halftime of Friday’s game, with the help of Lee’s Summit North High School cheerleaders, administration and basketball fans to show that anyone can perform these two simple steps and potentially save a life.
This event marks National Heart Month and provides community education and awareness around the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, and what to do if you or someone you are with experiences those symptoms. The American Heart Association and other organizations, including the American Red Cross, are promoting instruction in an easier, hands-only version of CPR that drops the difficult mouth-to-mouth maneuver that was long a part of teaching the life-saving technique.
“CPR has changed,” says Lee’s Summit Medical Center Chief Executive Officer John McDonald, FACHE. “This is a powerful community partnership, to be able to engage people in a life-saving exercise, but also in a fun way that’s memorable.”
The AHA and other groups are trying to make CPR more accessible, spreading the word through innovative methods. The guidelines say it’s appropriate to start CPR if you see a person collapse who is not breathing or is gasping. The hands-only CPR is meant to be performed until an ambulance or EMS provider or someone with an automatic defibrillator arrives to take over.
For more information visit Lee’s Summit Medical Center.