The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) has announced its partnership with the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Compton Police Department to give more than 6,000 Compton Unified students lifesaving CPR skills. A $15,000 grant from LADF will make it possible for high school students to receive CPR in Schools training kits developed by AHA, which includes a series of Hands-Only CPR training, automated external defibrillation use and choking relief.

A launch program will be held at Manuel Dominguez High School (15301 S San Jose Ave, Compton, CA) tomorrow (Thursday, February 8) at 12:45 p.m. with Dodger Alumni and Dominguez High School graduate Kenny Landreaux, President of Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees Micah Ali, Chief of Police of Compton Unified School District Police Department William Wu, American Heart Association Community CPR Manager Mike Deitch and Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation Executive Director Nichol Whiteman, along with high school students and police officers.

“Equipping high school students in the Compton Unified School District with CPR kits uniquely couples our health and education pillars,” said Nichol Whiteman, Executive Director, Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. “We are thrilled to partner with the American Heart Association and the Compton Police Department to offer thousands of students this empowering and lifesaving skill.”

Developed by AHA, each kit contains 10 inflatable mannequins, 10 AED training simulators, five training DVDs, lesson plans and other materials that can teach hundreds of students. The kit enables students to practice on a mannequin while watching skills performed correctly on the DVD, a research-proven way to learn and retain lifesaving CPR skills.

“Teaching our high school students CPR will put thousands of qualified lifesavers in our community year after year,” said Ravi Dave, MD, Immediate Past President of the American Heart Association Los Angeles County Division Board of Directors and a cardiologist with UCLA Health. “Everyone benefits from having more lifesavers in our community, especially when you consider that every hour about 40 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital.”

Currently in Los Angeles County, only three percent of cardiac arrest victims survive. Hands-only CPR focuses on the first few minutes following a cardiac arrest. While emergency responders are on their way to the scene, 100 to 120 chest compressions per minute will help provide the ongoing blood flow needed to give the patient a much better chance of survival once responders arrive. In 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that will require CPR training for a majority of the state’s high school students, resulting in about 270,000 of the 377,000 California high school graduates getting trained in CPR each year.

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(Article courtesy of LA Dodgers)