ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools teamed up with doctors and first responders to teach students CPR on Thursday.
Dr. Gul Dadlani is the Chief of Cardiology at Nemours Children’s Health. He said he’s excited to teach kids in the Orange County school district a life-saving skill like CPR.
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“What we want is to empower people to react when called upon,” Dadlani said. “So if you learn CPR, 80% of the time, you’re going to use it on family members or friends, and if someone were to go down in front of you, what we want people to use is hands-only CPR, meaning you don’t have to worry about giving a breath.”
Dadlani, along with OCPS and first responders, helped train more than 33,000 students on Thursday in honor of World Heart Day.
“Without CPR, only 10% of people survive a sudden cardiac arrest with CPR, and the use of defibrilators in the commmunity, that number can be greater than 60%,” Dadlani said. “We want everyone in Orlando to have that skillset. You know, I’m so happy that Orange County Public Schools, the administration, the school board have empowered students to learn CPR and have this life-saving skill.”
Orange County School Board member Alicia Farrant said the district-wide instruction is saving lives.
“Last year, actually, we had a student that received the instruction, and four hours later at his job, he was actually able to save someone’s life,” Farrant said.
Farrant said the recent scare involving Buffalo Bills’ Safety, Damar Hamlin, stresses the importance of learning CPR.
“I think students are realizing this is a real, actual problem they could face, whether it’s at home, at a basketball game, at school, at their job or just being out in the community. They’re realizing that this is something they’ve seen firsthand with this football player and something they could use in real life,” Farrant said.
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