Lurie Children's offers free emergency skills training for groups

Learning a lifesaving skill like CPR or bleeding cessation is an impactful action to take to be able to help a friend, a loved one or a peer in need. Every minute counts when someone's life is in danger, and research shows that lives can be saved when bystanders know how to initially respond in an emergency.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 356,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States every year, and about 60% to 80% of them die before reaching the hospital. On average, it takes first responders about seven minutes to arrive on a scene.

With every minute that goes by in a cardiac emergency without CPR intervention, the person's survival rate decreases by 10%. Furthermore, the leading cause of preventable death after injury is bleeding, and someone who is severely bleeding can bleed to death in as little as 5 minutes.

Pediatric surgery and emergency medicine trauma experts at Lurie Children's are acutely familiar with how crucial these skills can be and are committed to getting Hands-Only CPR and STOP THE BLEED® knowledge much farther into the Chicagoland community. It is why they've created a free program dedicated to training kids and adults in both.

“Our Safety Day program is where Trauma and EMS experts from Lurie Children's Emergency and Surgery Departments teach the public lifesaving skills to help others in emergencies before professional help arrives,” said Patricia Aquino, BSN, RN, and Emergency Medicine Trauma coordinator at Lurie Children's.

“Any school or organization where the public gathers are welcome to sign up for a Safety Day training, which is completely free and lasts about two hours, accommodating up to 80 participants.”

The leaders of Safety Day say the content of the day focuses on CPR and STOP THE BLEED® training, where live demonstrations expose participants to bleeding cessation techniques and certify them in the Hands-Only CPR method. Lurie Children's also provides the organizations/schools being trained with equipment to keep on-site.

Aquino says that feedback to the program has been overwhelmingly positive, and they hope to continue expanding their reach across the city.

“We consistently see great engagement and curiosity from participants during the training, many organizations ask us to return in the future, and one participant we trained even utilized the lifesaving skills they learned to save a family member of theirs,” she said.

For schools or local organizations interested in signing up for a Safety Day of their own, they can contact Trauma Coordinator Patty Aquino at (312) 227-4728 or paquino@Luriechildrens.org, or Director of Trauma Services Dr. Kabre at RKabre@luriechildrens.org, to inquire about setting up a training.

Note: Training subject matter was developed in collaboration with the American Red Cross, American Heart Association and American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma.

• Children's health is a continuing series. This week's column was submitted by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. For more information, visit www.LurieChildrens.org.