MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Staff at five Manchester-based schools are now better trained to respond to cardiac emergencies following training in the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification.

President of the Rotary Club of Mandeville Ava Dunn, who hosted a CPR and AED training on Wednesday, said the initiative will be expanded.

“We have five schools and we have trained teachers, nurses, coaches in the use of the AED machines and also CPR training. This is the first training that we have had in Mandeville, but we do intend to extend it to the other schools in and around the parish of Manchester, because we would like the population on a whole to learn about CPR and the use of the defibrillator machines,” said Dunn.

The schools in the first phase of the initiative are Bellefield High, May Day High, Bishop Gibson High School for Girls, Mile Gully High, and Belair High.

“This is a mandate from our District Governor Dr William Aiken… Less than 10 per cent of the population in Jamaica know how to perform CPR and to save a life. Most of us heard about recent stories where student-athletes had cardiac arrests. [We believe] that if more people know how to perform CPR, it will have an impact.

“We intend to move beyond the 10 per cent of the population aware of performing CPR to increase it and we are going to start with the schools, the teachers, the coaches who are in charge of the children, then we move to the public spaces,” added Dunn.

In the meantime, health education training manager at the Heart Foundation of Jamaica Alonzo Mothersill emphasised the significance of CPR to save lives.

“Knowing CPR is an important skill and we find that many people don’t know what to do when there is an emergency, because it mostly happens outside of a medical facility and therefore at Heart Foundation it is our mandate to train persons in this important skill. When someone collapses early CPR may give them the best chance to survive, if you don’t give them CPR they may die,” said Mothersill.

He stressed the significance of the partnership between the Rotary Club of Jamaica and the Heart Foundation of Jamaica to do CPR training.

“It is so important to know how to do CPR and how to use an AED machine. We believe these skills can save the life of a family member, a colleague or somebody close to you, so knowing what to do in an emergency is so important.

“By doing CPR you are giving the person their best chance to survive as they are transported to a medical facility afterwards,” added Mothersill as he argued that people overseeing and training student athletes should be aware of how to perform CPR.

“What we find in recent times when someone collapses in a school setting persons panic. Sometimes there are trained persons there and for whatever reason CPR wasn’t rendered, so it is good to have many persons at a school trained in CPR,” he said.

May Day High bursar Raquel Walters, whose school was given an AED during Wednesday’s activities, said it will greatly benefit the population of 1,100 students.

“We have an athletic programme at the school and as a result of that this machine will assist us, because we are further away from hospital and the coaches they will know how to use it, so in the case of an emergency they can stabilise the child until the proper help gets to them,” said Walters.

Belair High teacher, coach and Assistant Dean Rone Thomas welcomed the training initiative and said CPR and AED certification should be mandatory among coaching staff.

“I believe the training will allow us to do better in terms of aiding to render CPR or even using the AED to assist and preserve life. The coaching staff shouldn’t depend on the school nurse alone, but also have themselves certified to assist just the same,” he said.

Teachers from two Manchester schools demonstrate their CPR training during Wednesday’s initiative in Mandeville, Manchester. (Photo: Kasey Williams)