Learn CPR and save a life
As a 30-year-plus resident of Granby and longtime a member of the Connecticut Board of Directors of the American Heart Association (AHA), I wish to congratulate our town supervisors, managers, volunteer ambulance, police and fire departments along with generous philanthropists who have supported the AHA’s Nation of Lifesavers goals. Their efforts have resulted in our town now having eight publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs). These are at the main library, town hall, Department of Public Works, Ahrens Park Salmon Brook Park Recreation building, Salmon Brook Park Rovers Field, Holcomb Farm and at the GHMS Track. Along with the other AEDs available in the schools and at private businesses our town is well covered and an exemplary small town.
Each year, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital in the United States, including 23,000 children. When you pair that with the fact that almost three out of four of those happen at home and 90 percent don’t survive, it’s clear that more people need to learn CPR and have access to (AEDs). I am personally aware of children and adults who have had their lives saved from community available CPR and AEDs.
The American Heart Association recognizes this need and encourage everyone to join the Nation of Lifesavers and learn CPR. This movement, led by the Association, has a goal to double survival rates of cardiac arrest by 2030.
How can we reach that goal? When everyone learns this lifesaving skill.
You can learn CPR by taking a local certification course or in just 60-seconds, learn Hands-Only CPR. Go to CPR.heart.org for local classes and videos. With research showing that kids as young as 9 years old can learn, this is something the whole family can do together.
I encourage everyone in Granby to go from bystander to lifesaver today.
Seth Lapuk, MD, FACC
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center
Assoc. Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
University of Connecticut
School of Medicine
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