Packers join Bellin Health in getting life-saving devices into schools, sports centers
The Green Bay Packers are donating $100,000 to put the life-saving device used to help resuscitate Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin into 80 schools and recreational sports facilities in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
"After seeing Damar Hamlin's shocking cardiac arrest and witnessing the incredible response from the emergency personnel and medical professionals who treated him, we recognized our responsibility to take action in our own community," Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement Wednesday.
The life-saving automated external defibrillators (AED) detect if an individual is experiencing an abnormal or fatal heart rhythm. If an individual, like Hamlin, is experiencing a fatal heart rhythm, pads are applied to the torso and the AED provides a shock to the heart. The goal is to jolt the heart cells, which generate electrical impulses, back into a normal heart beat. A heart allowed to beat too fast for too long will eventually stop beating.
Using an AED machine requires training. Bellin Health, the Packers official health care partner, will conduct around 15, four-hour training sessions to make sure each AED recipient has multiple representatives within their organization who are properly trained in CPR and AED use. Annual equipment checks also will be performed by Bellin team members to ensure the equipment is functioning properly.
Emergency personnel used an AED and administered CPR to Hamlin on Jan. 2 during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was taken by ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital where he received medical care in the intensive care unit. Hamlin now is back at the team's practice facility.
Roughly 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest, an electrical heart problem, annually, with half of those individuals not receiving the help they need until an ambulance arrives, according to Bellin Health. An additional 10,000 Wisconsinites are hospitalized following a heart attack, caused by a clogged artery, annually, according to the state Department of Health Services.
“We are extremely grateful to the Green Bay Packers for this incredible donation of life-saving equipment to the communities we serve,” Bellin Health President Chris Woleske said in a statement. “Access to this equipment combined with education surrounding how to provide aid in a cardiac emergency is proven to save lives.”
The Packers and Bellin Health are also working together to expand access to CPR and AED trainings throughout the region, with plans to offer a large-scale public training opportunity at Lambeau Field in the coming months, as well as regional training opportunities throughout the region.
Additionally, the two organizations are collaborating to spread awareness for hands-only CPR, a form of CPR that is appropriate for members of the public who do not have any advanced medical training or experience. Hands-only CPR can help save lives by providing initial life-saving efforts until first responders arrive.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Packers donate devices that saved Damar Hamlin to schools, sports centers
