Medical Center presents 22 schools with CPR in Schools Training Kits

If performed immediately, CPR can greatly increase a person's chance of survival – yet that happens less than 10 percent of the time when a heart-related emergency occurs outside of the hospital. As part of its continued efforts to add to the numbers of trained responders in the community, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center presented CPR in Schools Training Kits to representatives of 22 schools from across central Pennsylvania.

The training kits were provided free of charge to the school districts, due to funding from the Medical Center's Resuscitation Sciences Training Center, Children's Miracle Network, I.O. Silver Foundation and the Medical Center's Community Relations Department.

The kits contain inflatable manikins, training DVDs, AED training simulators and other tools and materials that enable students to learn CPR in just one class period.

The presentation included a hands-on training session on the Medical Center campus. Tammi Bortner, Resuscitation Sciences Training Center program manager, walked the group through a number of real world scenarios in which children saved the lives of peers and family members. They included the case of Milton Hershey School student Randy Gibson, who was credited with saving the life of a school houseparent who collapsed in front of him.

Bortner noted that sometimes when an individual suffers cardiac arrest, bystanders freeze, unsure of what to do.

“In that moment, knowing how to save a life by performing CPR is the most important thing,” Bortner said. “And anyone can do that.”

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