Lowell General Helps EMS Team Spread The CPR Word

Lowell General Hospital is helping Trinity Emergency Service get the word out to urge more people to learn how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Trinity which is a training center for the American Heart Association, wanted to follow AHA guidelines and spread basic CPR knowledge to help prevent deaths from heart attack.

Trinity has offered CPR courses to health care professionals, but sought partners to help them reach out to other groups in the community. Partnering with Lowell General and Chelmsford High School, Trinity started a pilot program that encouraged Chelmsford High School to help distribute CPR kits to homes in the community.

Trinity EMS had already been involved in helping Chelmsford High train their students in CPR, a requirement for 10th grade students, and believed that distributing the kits would enable the students to share their knowledge with people in the community. Lowell General provided the funding to purchase 200 kits. During February, each student received a CPR kit which included a CPR practice mannequin and everything they need to share their knowledge with “friends and family”. The kit allows non-medical persons to learn the core skills of CPR in just over 20 minutes.

“As chairman of the American Heart Association's Learn and Live™ program in this area, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring the life-saving basics of CPR into the homes in our community,” said Normand E. Deschene, president and CEO of Lowell General. “It is staggering to think how many lives could be saved if every member of every family in every community knew the basics of CPR in the event of an emergency. A program such as this could help make that happen.”

“Working together we make a great team,” says John P. Chemaly, president of Trinity EMS. “We have the training expertise to get the knowledge out, Chelmsford High School students provide the essential outreach into the community, and Lowell General Hospital has stepped up to share the finances and make it all happen.”